President Donald Trump speaks before Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is sworn in as HHS Secretary in the Oval Office, Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, in Washington (Photo/Alex Brandon).
The Trump administration unlawfully removed two transgender men from the U.S. Air Force using the president’s “unconstitutional” executive order — banning transgender military members — “under the cloud of being suddenly deemed unfit” by administration officials, despite each of them having “years of unblemished and decorated service” on their record, a judge ruled Monday.
U.S. District Judge Christine O’Hearn has become the latest person on the federal bench to side with challenges made in recent weeks against Trump’s executive order, which calls for transgender people to be banned from military service after “years” of being allowed to openly serve, according to O’Hearn, who is a judge in the District of New Jersey. U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes issued a preliminary injunction last Wednesday in the District of Columbia, halting the transgender ban in a case where Trump’s order was attacked in a lawsuit filed on Jan. 28 by service members.
The complaint argued that the ban on transgender service members violates the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment by discriminating against people “based on their sex and based on their transgender status.”
