WASHINGTON — In a major legal setback for the Trump administration’s defense policies, a federal appeals court on Monday ruled 2-1 that portions of the Pentagon’s restrictive transgender military policy are unlawful, finding that they appeared to be “driven by the bare desire to harm a politically unpopular group.”The decision by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit blocks the administration from removing transgender service members who are currently serving. However, the divided court left in place, for now, restrictions that prevent most new transgender recruits from enlisting while the broader legal battle continues.
The ruling takes aim at Executive Order 14183, issued by President Donald Trump in January 2025, and the subsequent Pentagon implementing guidelines—known as the “Hegseth Policy”—issued by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. Under these rules, individuals with a history or diagnosis of gender dysphoria, or those who identify as transgender, are largely disqualified from military service unless they obtain a rare waiver.
Writing for the majority, Circuit Judge Robert L. Wilkins declared that the policy violates the equal protection guarantees of the Fifth Amendment. He wrote that the administration’s targeting of service members went far beyond any legitimate military readiness concerns, and appeared instead to be “arbitrary and based on animus.”
“The record shows that the purpose of the Hegseth Policy is to target applicants and servicemembers who express what the Administration believes is a ‘false gender identity,’ and the Policy goes far beyond disqualifying persons currently or recently suffering from gender dysphoria,” the majority decision states. “Some of those disqualifications are completely unexplained and have no reasonable justification.”
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