Appeals Court Sides With Pete Hegseth On Trans Military Ban

AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein

A federal appeals court sided with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on Tuesday, ruling the U.S. military can exclude trans members from serving.

The 2-1 ruling, made in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, upheld Hegseth and President Donald Trump’s push to bar trans men and women from the military, after a lower court placed an injunction on it in March; the Supreme Court then ruled the ban could continue in May, as it was being debated in court.

Judges Gregory G. Katsas and Neomi Rao on Tuesday ruled Hegseth and Trump’s decision was “likely constitutional because it reflects a considered judgment of military leaders and furthers legitimate military interests.”

The judges wrote that Hegseth’s argument — that service members with gender dysphoria are unfit for the military — was supported by previous military standards. Those standards have been changed a handful of times in recent years, they noted, as the commander-in-chief has switched from being a Democrat to a Republican.

“The United States military enforces strict medical standards to ensure that only physically and mentally fit individuals join its ranks,” the judges wrote. “For decades, these requirements barred service by individuals with gender dysphoria, a medical condition associated with clinically significant distress. This bar was partially relaxed in 2016, revived in 2018, partially relaxed again in 2021, and revived again in 2025.”

Hegseth argued barring troops with gender dysphoria improves “combat readiness, unit cohesion, and cost control,” the judges added. They said he made his decision after consulting materials based on the 2016 and 2018 policy changes, as well as studies on transgender service members.

“Even if the Hegseth Policy contained a classification triggering some form of heightened scrutiny, decades of precedent establish that the judiciary must tread carefully when asked to second-guess considered military judgments of the political branches,” they wrote.

Their ruling comes after President Trump signed an executive order a week after returning to office in January, effectively banning trans Americans from serving.

“A man’s assertion that he is a woman, and his requirement that others honor this falsehood, is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member,” the order said.

U.S. District Court Judge Ana Reyes issued the injunction against the order in March.

Reyes ripped the order, writing it was “soaked in animus and dripping with pretext. Its language is unabashedly demeaning, its policy stigmatizes transgender persons as inherently unfit, and its conclusions bear no relation to fact.”

Katsas and Rao disagreed with Reyes, saying she “afforded insufficient deference” to Hegseth’s “considered judgement.”