Department of Justice attorneys have asked the court to toss out a lawsuit against Donald “I will protect our LGBTQ citizens” Trump’s ban on transgender military service members “because the Pentagon hasn’t even finalized the ban's details yet”:
"That challenge is premature several times over," said a brief submitted in US District Court in Washington, DC, by the Justice Department, which is representing Trump and military brass in the case of several transgender soldiers who have sued to repeal the ban.
This is the first time federal lawyers have attempted to defend Trump’s policy in court. The president has claimed the policy is necessary for a strong military, but rather than vindicate that argument directly, Trump’s attorneys argue it is too early to consider suspending the ban now.
"No actual discharge or denial of accession has occurred, and they will not suffer a hardship if the Court withholds consideration until after the policies challenged in this case are implemented and are found to impact Plaintiffs," the government attorneys continued in their 44-page brief.
They added the case should be dismissed outright: "The Court should therefore dismiss this case for lack of jurisdiction."
The DOJ lawyers are arguing that because trans service members can continue in their roles until the ban kicks into effect until March 2018, “the soldiers haven't suffered, and there is no basis to suspend the rule.” But the trans service members who sued the Trump administration say that they are in fact already being affected. “With that deadline in sight, the soldiers say some medical treatments have been canceled and their careers are being derailed”:
One of the plaintiffs, according to a motion in August, "was scheduled to undergo surgery in September of this year, but as a result of the directive, her medical treatment has been halted.”
Buzzfeed’s Dominic Holden writes that “at least three other lawsuits challenging the ban are moving through federal courts: a case in Washington state led by attorneys at Lambda Legal and OutServe-Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a case in Maryland represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, and a case in California also represented by the National Center for Lesbian Rights and GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders. Lawyers for the federal government have yet to respond in those cases.”