WASHINGTON, DC—A three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit today heard oral arguments in Talbott v. USA (formerly Talbott v. Trump), a case on behalf of 30 transgender service members and recruits challenging President Trump’s transgender military ban.
National Center for LGBTQ Rights (NCLR) Legal Director Shannon Minter argued on behalf of the plaintiffs, noting the District Court’s finding that the ban is based on unconstitutional animus and does not reflect military judgment or medical policy protocols:
“The Hegseth Policy seeks an unprecedented, chaotic mass discharge of thousands of qualified troops based on nothing more than disapproval of transgender people. It attacks servicemembers who have deployed around the world in dangerous assignments in places like Iraq and Afghanistan and have received multiple awards for valor and performance.
“As the government concedes, these plaintiffs are highly qualified and have met every standard, with deployments before, during, and after transition. The government has attempted to paper over this animus by later claiming this is a neutral policy based on a medical condition. But that claim runs counter to the facts, these servicemembers’ obvious qualifications and performance, and how the military treats medical conditions.”
Co-counsel Jennifer Levi, GLAD Law Senior Director of Transgender and Queer Rights stated:
“The District Court documented more than 80 detailed findings of fact supported by unrebutted evidence and held a three-day hearing that comprehensively examined all of the evidence and arrived at one unambiguous conclusion: the Hegseth policy is based on unconstitutional animus.
“We know and our plaintiffs’ own experience makes clear that transgender troops serve at the highest levels of our military with extraordinary commendations and performance records. There is no medical or military reason to support this indefensible ban.” …
Talbott v. Trump was the first legal challenge filed against President Trump’s recent transgender military ban executive order. NCLR’s Shannon Minter and GLAD Law’s Jennifer Levi, the lead attorneys in Talbott, are transgender themselves and each have more than three decades of experience litigating landmark and key LGBTQ cases. Together, Minter and Levi led the legal fight in 2017 against the transgender military ban in Doe v. Trump and Stockman v. Trump, which also secured a nationwide preliminary injunction blocking that ban.
Talbott was brought by LGBTQ+ legal groups the National Center for LGBTQ Rights (NCLR) and GLAD Law along with legal counsel from Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein, Wardenski P.C., and Kropf Moseley PLCC.
— from a GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD Law) press release; read the complete GLAD Law release here.
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