Presidential Memorandum for the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security | |
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Signed by | Donald Trump on August 25, 2017 |
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Federal Register details | |
Federal Register document number | 2017-18544 |
Publication date | August 30, 2017 |
Document citation | 41319 |
Summary | |
Military service by transgender individuals |
The Presidential Memorandum on Military Service by Transgender Individuals, officially the Presidential Memorandum for the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security, is the 27th presidential memorandum signed by U.S. President Donald Trump on August 25, 2017. The intent was to prevent transgender people from serving in the U.S. military, on the basis that they would be a financial burden due to sex reassignment procedures and associated costs. Federal courts delayed the implementation of this rule by issuing four injunctions. On January 22, 2019, however, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration's ban to take effect.[1]
On October 30, 2017, in the case of Jane Doe v. Trump, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly granted the plaintiffs a preliminary injunction on the provisions of the memorandum prohibiting open military service and enlistment of transgender people.[2] On November 21, 2017, in the case of Stone v. Trump, Judge Marvin J. Garbis granted the plaintiffs a preliminary injunction on the entirety of the Presidential Memorandum for the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security.[3] Also that day, the United States Department of Justice appealed the preliminary injunction in the case of Jane Doe v. Trump.[4] The Pentagon's six-month delay on accession of transgender individuals into military service expired January 1, 2018.[5]
The original policy, which this Memorandum replaced, had been blocked in 2017 (Jane Doe v. Trump), when it was ruled that as far as could be seen, "all of the reasons proffered by the president for excluding transgender individuals from the military in this case were not merely unsupported, but were actually contradicted by the studies, conclusions and judgment of the military itself".[6][7] The 2018 Memorandum and policy superseding this Memorandum was itself stayed on 13 April 2018 when a Washington court ruled in Karnoski vs. Trump (Western District of Washington), that the 2018 Memorandum essentially repeated the same issues as its predecessor order from 2017, that transgender service members (and transgender individuals as a class) were a protected class entitled to strict scrutiny of adverse laws (or at worst, a quasi-suspect class), and ordered that matter continue to a full trial hearing on the legality of the proposed policy.[8]
On January 25, 2021, Trump's successor Joe Biden signed an executive order which revoked the transgender military ban.[9]
NYT-171030
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).Federal judge says Trump administration can’t stop funding sex-reassignment surgery for military members
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).