The Trump administration is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in a case related to its attempts to ban all transgender service members from the U.S. Armed Forces. On Monday the White House asked the Supreme Court to block a lower court’s order which would force the administration to reveal to plaintiffs, who are transgender service members, documents showing how President Trump determined the ban on trans service members was supposedly necessary. But it also suggested the Court could take up the entire case.
The court filing is by Trump administration officials including President Trump, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and the DoD, and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and the DHS.
The administration, according to the court document it filed, is asking the Supreme Court to stay an order that “requires the Executive Branch, including the President himself, to produce a detailed privilege log of thousands of documents withheld under the presidential communications privilege — and to do so in a manner that reveals information that is itself privileged.”
Monday’s application also asks the Supreme Court to stay a lower court’s ruling barring it from banning transgender service members from the Armed Forces. If the Supreme Court refuses to place the hold on the lower court’s ruling, the Trump administration is asking the Court to take up and review the case in which it is being sued to remove its ban on transgender service members.
U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Harry Brexel via Flickr