\n
![](\"http:\/\/assets2.hrc.org\/images\/made\/images\/remote\/https_assets2.hrc.org\/files\/images\/blog\/Military-Soldiers-1600by900_640_360.jpg\")
<\/p>\nMilitary Officers, States AG and Others Urge Ninth Circuit to Maintain Block on Trans Troops<\/b>
\n<\/p>\n
NAACP Legal Defense Fund, American Medical Association and constitutional law scholars join impressive list of nine friend-of-the-court briefs underscoring the harm and impermissible discrimination of the proposed policy<\/p>\n
“The amicus briefs filed today represent the clear broad, bipartisan opposition to Donald Trump and Mike Pence’s unconstitutional ban on transgender troops,”\u00a0said HRC National Press Secretary Sarah McBride.\u00a0“From former military leaders to the American Medical Association, these legal, medical and national security experts lay bare the hollow reasoning and discriminatory motivations behind this cruel and counterproductive policy. We are hopeful that the courts will heed the advice of these experts and continue to ensure that transgender service members are able to continue to serve the country they love.”<\/p>\n
(San Francisco,\u00a0July 3, 2018) \u2013 Dozens of retired U.S. military officers and former national security officials have joined states attorneys general, the country\u2019s leading medical associations and leading civil rights organizations \u2013 including the NAACP Legal Defense Fund \u2013 in nine friend-of-the-court briefs urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to uphold the lower court ruling in\u00a0Karnoski v. Trump<\/em>\u00a0and maintain the ban on implementation of the Trump administration\u2019s discriminatory ban on transgender military service.<\/p>\n \u201cEach of these briefs, and the impressive roster of signatories, underscores the myriad ways in which the proposed ban on transgender military service not only harms unit cohesion and morale, but also upends months of extensive research and study that supported ending the ban in the first place,\u201d said Lambda Legal Staff Attorney Sasha Buchert.\u00a0 \u201cThis unconstitutional and discriminatory ban has already lost multiple times in multiple courts, and these briefs demonstrate why such a fate is well deserved. It is well past time to put this ill-conceived \u201cplan\u201d out of its \u2013 and our \u2013 misery.\u201d<\/p>\n The nine friend-of-the-court briefs filed today include:<\/p>\n Retired Military Officers and Former National Security Officials Brief<\/strong>: A total of 33 former military and national security officers joined this brief, which situates the lifting of the ban on transgender military service to similar points in the history of the armed services regarding integrated units, the ban on women<\/a> and, more recently, open service by gay<\/a> men<\/a> and lesbians<\/a>. The brief notes that, in each instance, fears concerning unit cohesion and morale were unfounded. The brief further underscores the extensive study and outreach that went into the decision to lift the ban on open transgender service, as opposed to the rushed ad hoc process behind the proposed policy to re-impose the ban. Read the brief here:\u00a0www.lambdalegal.org\/in-court\/legal-docs\/karnoski_wa_20180703_retired-military-officers-amicus-brief<\/a><\/p>\n NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF) Brief<\/strong>: The LDF brief connects the ban on open transgender service to the arguments against service by African-Americans and against integrated military units almost 70 years ago. The brief notes that the justifications the Trump administration cited to re-impose the ban, \u201cnot only are \u2026 the same justifications that the previous administration found baseless just two years ago, they are almost identical to the justifications the military used to discriminate against Black soldiers more than half a century ago.\u201d Read brief here:\u00a0www.lambdalegal.org\/in-court\/legal-docs\/karnoski_wa_20180703_ldf-amicus-brief<\/a><\/p>\n American Medical Association (AMA) Brief<\/strong>: Joined by 12 medical, nursing, mental health and related health care organizations, the AMA brief cites voluminous medical data and studies to demonstrate that there is nothing related to being transgender that has any bearing on a transgender person\u2019s ability to serve their country. Read brief here:\u00a0www.lambdalegal.org\/in-court\/legal-docs\/karnoski_wa_20180703_american-medical-association-amicus-brief<\/a><\/p>\n Former U.S. Armed Services Surgeons General Brief<\/strong>: Joined by the former Surgeons General of the U.S. Army and Navy and the former Director of Health and Safety for the U.S. Coast Guard, this brief argues that the stated reasons for re-imposing the transgender military ban are not supported by the evidence. Read the brief here:\u00a0(Link forthcoming)<\/em><\/p>\n The Trevor Project Brief<\/strong>: In its brief, the Trevor Project, the nation\u2019s largest lesbian<\/a>, gay<\/a>, bisexual<\/a>, transgender, queer, and questioning (\u201cLGBTQ\u201d) youth crisis intervention and suicide prevention organization, highlights the harm the ban visits particularly on transgender youth who wish to enlist and to serve their country. Read the brief here:\u00a0www.lambdalegal.org\/in-court\/legal-docs\/karnoski_wa_20180703_trevor-project-amicus-brief<\/a><\/p>\n The States Brief<\/strong>: Joined by the attorneys general of 18 states and the District of Columbia, this brief highlights the fact that many states in the United States have explicit nondiscrimination statutes on their books and a keen interest in supporting those statutes. In addition, states command National Guard units and related military support institutions. Military strength and readiness are a key concern for these states. Read the brief here:\u00a0www.lambdalegal.org\/in-court\/legal-docs\/karnoski_wa_20180703_states-amicus-brief<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n Sex Discrimination Brief<\/strong>: Joined by 10 organizations that work in diverse ways to advance equal opportunity for women<\/a> and to combat various forms of sex<\/a> discrimination, this brief underscores that almost 50 years of constitutional jurisprudence has disallowed the government from embedding assumptions of what constitutes maleness and femaleness into law. However, the proposed transgender ban does just that. Read the brief here:\u00a0www.lambdalegal.org\/in-court\/legal-docs\/karnoski_wa_20180703_sex-discrimination-amicus-brief<\/a><\/p>\n The Constitution Accountability Center Brief<\/strong>: This brief discusses how the proposed ban violates the equal protection guarantee of the U.S. Constitution, and thus must be subjected to heightened scrutiny, a level of scrutiny that the ban clearly fails. Read the brief here:\u00a0www.lambdalegal.org\/in-court\/legal-docs\/karnoski_wa_20180703_constitutional-accountability-center-amicus-brief<\/a><\/p>\n Transgender Civil Rights Groups Brief<\/strong>: Joined by seven transgender civil and legal rights organizations, this brief also underscores why the proposed ban must be subjected to heightened scrutiny and why it fails. Read the brief here:\u00a0www.lambdalegal.org\/in-court\/legal-docs\/karnoski_wa_20180703_transgender-civil-rights-groups-amicus-brief<\/a><\/p>\n In\u00a0Karnoski v. Trump<\/em>, Lambda Legal and OutServe-SLDN represent nine individual plaintiffs \u2013 six currently serving members of the armed services and three individuals seeking to enlist \u2013 and three organizational plaintiffs: the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), Seattle-based Gender Justice League, and the American Military Partner Association (AMPA), who joined the lawsuit on behalf of their transgender members harmed by the ban.<\/p>\n On\u00a0April 13, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington affirmed its earlier preliminary injunction and barred implementation of the transgender military ban, rejecting the Trump administration\u2019s claim that its plan to ban transgender people from serving openly in the U.S. Armed Services, released\u00a0March 23, passed muster. Instead, the court found that plan to be a retread of the original ban, not a new policy, threatening the very same constitutional violations. Furthermore, the court also found that the effort to ban transgender people from military service must meet the most demanding level of scrutiny because it targets transgender people for harm.<\/p>\n The Ninth Circuit is considering the Trump administration\u2019s appeal of that lower court ruling, and the amicus briefs submitted today are in response to that appeal. The case itself is on track to go to trial in April 2019 before the U.S. District Court in Seattle.\u00a0<\/p>\n Read more about the case here:\u00a0www.lambdalegal.org\/in-court\/cases\/karnoski-v-trump<\/a><\/p>\n The Lambda Legal attorneys working on the case are: Peter Renn, Camilla B. Taylor, Tara Borelli, Sasha Buchert, Kara Ingelhart, and Carl Charles. They are joined by co-counsel Peter Perkowski of OutServe-SLDN. Also on the legal team are pro-bono co-counsel at Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Newman Du Wors LLP.<\/p>\n www.hrc.org\/blog\/military-officers-states-ag-and-others-urge-ninth-circuit-to-maintain-block?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Military Officers, States AG and Others Urge Ninth Circuit to Maintain Block on Trans Troops NAACP Legal Defense Fund, American Medical Association and constitutional law scholars join impressive list of nine friend-of-the-court briefs underscoring the harm and impermissible discrimination of the proposed policy “The amicus briefs filed today represent the clear broad, bipartisan opposition to … Continue reading Military Officers, States AG and Others Urge Ninth Circuit to Maintain Block on Trans Troops<\/span>