A federal judge in Maryland has lifted an injunction temporarily blocking the Trump Administration's transgender military ban from going into effect nationwide.
The judge wrote in a six-page order issued Thursday he was lifting the nationwide injunction "because the court is bound by the Supreme Court’s decision to stay the preliminary injunctions in their entirety."
Transgender troops have been openly serving in the U.S. military since June 2016, after the Obama administration lifted a prior ban. But President Donald Trump signed a memo in 2017 to institute a new ban. Four lawsuits were filed against the policy, and were all granted injunctions to block the ban from taking effect while the suits worked their way through the courts.
After the first memo, President Trump released another memo in 2018 with a new policy that would allow for some transgender people to serve if they're in good mental and physical health, as well as serve in their biological sex.
A D.C. federal appeals court reversed one of the injunctions in early January. This was followed by the Supreme Court's decision to lift two others a few weeks later.
Despite the D.C. federal appeals court's judgment, the injunction is still technically in effect, as the court has not made a final ruling.
