Pentagon Cannot Remove Transgender Service Members, Appellate Court Says

The D.C. Circuit limited the decision to the four active-duty soldiers who are plaintiffs in the case.

admin June 1, 2026 2 minutes read

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals Monday that a Trump administration policy barring people who are transgender from serving in the military is unconstitutional and “driven by the bare desire to harm a politically unpopular group.”

The three-judge panel split 2-1 in deciding the case, and limited its injunction against the Pentagon policy to only the four transgender plaintiffs currently serving in the military who are facing expulsion but not the two people who had sought to join. They were challenging a Pentagon policy issued by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the result of an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on Jan. 27, 2025.

In the majority decision, Judge Robert Wilkins, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, wrote that the policy implemented “goes far beyond disqualifying persons currently or recently suffering from gender dysphoria.”

“I conclude that the Hegseth Policy is both arbitrary and based upon animus, and for those reasons the Policy violates Plaintiff-Appellees’ constitutional right to equal protection of the law,” Wilkins wrote.

The appeals court decision upheld a March 2025 ruling by U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes, which concluded that Trump’s executive order to exclude transgender troops from military service likely violates constitutional rights.

The administration appealed after Reyes issued a preliminary injunction.

The Department of Defense did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NOTUS.

In his dissent, Judge Justin Walker, a Trump appointee, said the court’s majority goes too far and that the judicial branch shouldn’t be setting military policy.

“Only the Executive and Congress are responsible for system-wide military judgments about the composition of the armed forces,” Walker wrote. “The Supreme Court has never assumed that role for itself. Neither has the D.C. Circuit. Not until today.”