State Attorney General Xavier Becerra and several California civil rights groups vowed Jan. 21 to continue challenging President Donald Trump's restrictions on transgender people in the military despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
The high court, by a 5-4 vote, issued orders staying two preliminary injunctions that would have blocked the ban from going into effect. It overruled the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, which had declined to issue a stay.
The injunctions were issued by federal judges in Seattle and Los Angeles in lawsuits filed by transgender people who are in the military or want to join. Both injunctions are on appeal before the 9th Circuit.
But the Supreme Court did not grant the Justice Department's request that it bypass the 9th Circuit altogether and take up the government's appeals directly. Instead, the two cases and two others in Maryland and Washington, D.C., will continue in the lower courts.
"We are confident the courts will ultimately protect the integrity of our nation's military and hold that transgender service members must be evaluated based on the same standards applied to all others," Minter said.
In the Washington, D.C., lawsuit, a U.S. district judge issued a preliminary injunction, but a federal appeals court overturned that injunction in early January. A fourth preliminary injunction was issued by a federal judge in Maryland and currently remains in effect.
The U.S. Defense Department said the Supreme Court's action enables it to move closer to implementing the planned restrictions, but noted that the Maryland injunction is still in place.