President Donald Trump is asking the United States Supreme Court for its approval to terminate over two dozen transgender-identifying military members from their posts.

This comes 19 months after Trump signed an executive order to remove transgender-identifying individuals from the military, which Secretary of War Pete Hegseth swiftly implemented. But earlier this year, a group of 29 plaintiffs pushed back against Trump’s order in the case U.S. v. Talbott. ABC News reported that the plaintiffs include transgender-identifying active-duty servicemembers who are reservists and National Guard members as well as an individual who goes by the name of Nicolas Talbott, who brought the case. Talbott wishes to enlist in the military but has been denied due to her gender dysphoria.

In June 2026, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the District Court’s?preliminary injunction, preventing the discharge of the 28 other plaintiffs, and allowing them to continue to serve for the time being. 

“The authority of the U.S. military to determine who may serve in the Nation’s armed forces is a matter of exceptional importance. Whether the Constitution prohibits the military from exercising that authority by adopting a policy like the one here is a recurring issue, which has arisen before and will likely arise again absent this Court’s review,” wrote Solicitor General John Sauer in the petition from the White House. “The Court should thus take this opportunity to address the constitutionality of the Hegseth policy and reverse the decision below, whose reasoning cannot be squared with this Court’s precedents or deference to the military.”

SCOTUSblog reported that the challengers have one month to respond to the petition. The United States Supreme Court

justices will also decide if they will hear the case. If they decline, the 28 plaintiffs will maintain in their posts.

Walt Heyer, a senior fellow at Family Research Council, told The Washington Stand that Trump made the correct call. “It’s my view from having lived eight years of my life identifying as ‘trans’ that they should be fired and removed from federal government agencies because they are obviously ‘mentally compromised’ if they believe they are not who they really are. There is no such thing as ‘transgender’ and no one has ever successfully transitioned.” 

The president’s 2025 order “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness” states, “It is the policy of the United States Government to establish high standards for troop readiness, lethality, cohesion, honesty, humility, uniformity, and integrity. This policy is inconsistent with the medical, surgical, and mental health constraints on individuals with gender dysphoria. This policy is also inconsistent with shifting pronoun usage or use of pronouns that inaccurately reflect an individual’s sex.”

The order went on to explain that gender dysphoria is not the only mental illness that the military considers incompatible with active duty. The military also bars individuals with bipolar disorder, eating disorders, suicidal behavior, and prior psychiatric hospitalization from serving on active duty. 

“In an all-volunteer military, we should strive for meritocracy regarding who is in our military and who is capable of moving up the ladder to the senior ranks,” Lt. General (Ret.) Jerry Boykin, FRC’s executive vice president, told TWS. “Anyone that looks at this situation should be able to recognize that this is not an effort to achieve meritocracy.”

In 2021, the Department of War reported that it “spent $11,582,262.99 on psychotherapy for service members with gender dysphoria from Jan. 1, 2016 through May 14, 2021. Within DoD, 637 service members received hormone therapy during the same time frame, at a cost of $340,000, and 243 surgeries were performed at a cost of $3.1 million.”

Since he assumed his cabinet role, Hegseth has stood behind the president’s policy and criticized the former Biden administration for promoting “transgender” ideology. During a visit to the Rocket Lab in California in January, the secretary of War said, “No more DEI, no more dudes in dresses, no more climate change worship, social justice, or political correctness.”

“These individuals have come in and used taxpayer money to try and change their gender, and the question is, ‘What are they giving back?’ It is time for us to wake up and stop the nonsense that we call ‘equality,’” Boykin emphasized. “I personally applaud the president’s intentions to get our military back to focusing on winning our nation’s wars.”