Divided appeals court rules transgender military ban is unconstitutional

Politics Divided appeals court rules Trump administration's ban on transgender military service is unconstitutional By Melissa Quinn, Melissa Quinn Senior Reporter, Politics Melissa Quinn is a senior reporter for CBSNews.com, where she covers U.S. politics, with a focus on the Supreme Court and federal courts. Read Full Bio Melissa Quinn, Jacob Rosen Jacob Rosen Justice Department Reporter Jake Rosen is a reporter covering the Department of Justice. He was previously a campaign digital reporter covering President Trump's 2024 campaign and also served as an associate producer for "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan." Read Full Bio Jacob Rosen June 1, 2026 / 2:15 PM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google Washington — A divided federal appeals court ruled Monday that the Trump administration's policy banning transgender individuals from serving in the military is likely unconstitutional.A panel of three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit split 2-1 in finding that the ban rolled out by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth last year was driven by animus toward transgender people.Judges Judith Rogers and Robert Wilkins agreed that the Trump administration's policy targeting transgender service members likely violated the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection.The two judges agreed to leave in place a preliminary injunction that prevented the Defense Department from removing transgender troops who are in the military. That order is narrow and only covers the active-duty plaintiffs in the case."The government's stated reason for issuing the Hegseth Policy as based solely upon gender dysphoria was pretextual, and that instead, the Hegseth Policy was premised, at least in part, on a non-legitimate state interest to harm the politically unpopular group of transgender persons," Wilkins wrote in an opinion, adding that President Trump "declared transgender people as categorically unfit for military service explicitly because of their gender ident...