U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said Monday that he plans to appeal a ruling to the Supreme Court blocking his expulsion of transgender service members from the military. File Photo by Samuel Corum/UPI | License Photo
June 2 (UPI) -- The Trump administration's ban on transgender servicemembers in the U.S. military is "both arbitrary and based upon animus," a federal appeals court ruled, maintaining a block on the government from discharging plaintiffs in the case.
While the divided court ruled 2-1 on Monday to maintain a lower court's block preventing the expulsion of the active-duty servicemembers, it also vacated the injunction to allow the U.S. government to deny future enrollment to transgender Americans.
Though it was a divided opinion, the National Center for LGBTQ Rights and GLAD celebrated.
"This is a dramatic shift in the status quo," National Center for LGBTQ Rights Legal Director Shannon Minter said in a statement.
