A federal judge in Maryland has temporarily blocked all of President Trump's would-be ban on transgender Americans serving in the U.S. armed forces or receiving transition-related health care through the military.The decision comes just weeks after another federal judge, based in Washington, D.C., blocked most of the policy change.Last year, after extended study of the issue, the military announced that trans service members could sign up for the military, serve openly and receive medical care related to their transition. This summer, Trump announced on Twitter that the policy would be reversed, which was followed by an official memo.Like the D.C. judge, Judge Marvin Garbis in Maryland was struck by the haste and apparent lack of forethought that went into the change in policy. That bolstered the case of trans service members who sued and claimed that the policy violated their constitutional rights to equal protection and due process. "A capricious, arbitrary, and unqualified tweet of new policy does not trump the methodical and systematic review by military stakeholders qualified to understand the ramifications of policy changes," Garbis wrote. The service members also said the policy violated federal law, but the judge dismissed that portion of the lawsuit and only upheld the constitutional claims.The case, like the case in D.C., is still pending. The order released Tuesday is a preliminary injunction, based on the judge's believe that the service members are likely to win their case, but it is not the end of the legal battle. There's a key distinction between the two judge's orders. The D.C. decision did not address the question of military funding for gender transition costs; the judge ruled that none of the plaintiffs could prove they would be affected by the new policy. Therefore, that portion of the policy change seemed poised to move forward.But the Maryland case included two individuals who have treatment plans that call for surgeries in the future — a 34-year-old computer analyst in the Navy who served in Afghanistan and is waiting for two of his transition-related surgeries, and a 27-year-old Army staff sergeant who began her transition in September, before being promptly told her treatment would be denied. The judge decided they would be affected by the change in policy, and accordingly, the "Sex Reassignment Surgery Directive" is now blocked as well. The ACLU, which represented the service members in the Maryland case, celebrated the decision in a statement. Joshua Block, senior staff attorney with the ACLU's LGBT & HIV Project, called the injunction "a victory for transgender service members across the country."If you need a refresher on the military's evolving policy on trans service members, here's how we summed it up in October:
Second Federal Judge Blocks Trump's Ban On Trans Service Members
