LEGAL/LGBTQ/MILITARY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “A federal court on Monday [10-30-17] blocked parts of President Trump’s ban on transgender service members, preventing the Pentagon from overturning policies initiated by the Obama administration to allow transgender troops from serving openly.
The order in Washington by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly temporarily prevents to the Pentagon from enacting the ban that Trump announced by tweet in July.
The court found that the ban likely means the plaintiffs — transgender troops some with decades or meritorious service – had their rights to due process violated.
Kollar-Kotelly found several factors that favored the plaintiffs, notably the unusual way Trump announced it and ‘the fact that the reasons given for them do not appear to be supported by any facts, and the recent rejection of those reasons by the military itself.’
After Trump’s surprise Twitter announcement, top Pentagon officials, including Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, sought to reassure transgender troops already serving that they would not be discharge or denied medical care.”
-Tom Vanden Brook, “Court blocks Trump’s ban on transgender troops,” USA Today, Oct. 30, 2017 02:02pm