By ADAM LIPTAK NYTimes News Service
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WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the Trump administration may start enforcing a ban on transgender troops serving in the military that had been blocked by lower courts.

The ruling was brief, unsigned and gave no reasons, which is typical when the justices act on emergency applications. It will remain in place while challenges to the ban move forward.

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The court’s three liberal members — Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson — noted dissents but provided no reasoning.

The case concerns an executive order issued on the first day of President Donald Trump’s second term. It revoked an order from President Joe Biden that had let transgender service members serve openly.

A week later, Trump issued a second order saying that “adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful and disciplined lifestyle.”

The Defense Department implemented Trump’s order in February, issuing a new policy requiring transgender troops to be forced out of the military.

Seven active service members, as well as a person who seeks to sign up and an advocacy group, sued to block the policy, saying, among other things, that it ran afoul of the Constitution’s equal protection clause.

One of the plaintiffs, Cmdr. Emily Shilling, who began transitioning in 2021 while serving in the Navy, has been a naval aviator for 19 years.

In March, Judge Benjamin H. Settle of U.S. District Court in Tacoma, Washington, issued a nationwide injunction blocking the ban, using Shilling as an example of the policy’s flaws.

“There is no claim and no evidence that she is now, or ever was, a detriment to her unit’s cohesion, or to the military’s lethality or readiness, or that she is mentally or physically unable to continue her service,” Settle wrote. “There is no claim and no evidence that Shilling herself is dishonest or selfish, or that she lacks humility or integrity. Yet absent an injunction, she will be promptly discharged solely because she is transgender.”

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to block Settle’s ruling while it considered the administration’s appeal.

The administration then sought emergency relief from the Supreme Court, saying that “the district court’s injunction cannot be squared with the substantial deference that the department’s professional military judgments are owed.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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