Supreme Court stay restores DOD transgender separation directive

The Supreme Court granted DOJ’s emergency request to stay a preliminary injunction, enabling the Defense Department to resume separating transgender service members under a February directive PDF order. The stay, issued without recorded dissent, temporarily halts Judge Benjamin Settle’s 27 March 2025 injunction in Shilling v. Trump while the Ninth Circuit considers the government’s appeal.

Under the paused injunction, military services can again place transgender troops on administrative leave, recall or cancel deployments, suspend transition-related medical care, and enforce grooming and fitness standards aligned with biological sex. The policy also reinstates a hold on transgender recruits shipping to basic training, reflecting the administration’s “focus from wokeness to LETHALITY,” according to a Pentagon social media statement on X.

Despite the Supreme Court’s action, Pentagon spokespeople have deferred implementation questions to the Justice Department, and legal challenges continue to unfold. In Shilling v. Trump, Settle—appointed by President George W. Bush—found that “none of the government’s data supports its conclusion that banning transgender persons from serving is substantially related to achieving military readiness.”

A parallel case, Talbott v. USA in the DC Circuit, has placed a conditional administrative stay on its own injunction, barring discharges until judges decide on an emergency stay request. Transgender advocates warn that lifting these injunctions upends the status quo meant to preserve service members’ rights during litigation. “The court just turned that upside down,” said Shannon Minter, legal director at the National Center for Lesbian Rights.