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By Brendan Pierson
(Reuters) - The Trump administration on Thursday asked a U.S. appeals court to allow it to enforce a ban on transgender people serving in the military while it appeals a federal judge's order blocking the ban.
In an emergency motion filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the administration said it was likely to prevail in proving that the ban "furthers the government's important interests in military readiness, unit cohesion, good order and discipline, and avoiding disproportionate costs."
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes in Washington earlier this month ruled that the government cannot enforce the ban, in a lawsuit brought by current and would-be service members who allege that the policy discriminates against them.
Reyes put her own order on hold until Friday evening to give the government a chance to appeal. If the D.C. Circuit grants the government's request to stay Reyes' order further, it would allow the military to expel transgender service members during the appeal.
"The government's stay petition is just further part of their effort to remove highly qualified and contributing transgender members from our military," Jennifer Levi, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said in an email.
"We are confident the court will recognize that the true harm to our armed forces comes not from retaining these tremendous assets, but from forcing them out," she added.
President Donald Trump, a Republican, in a January executive order said the "adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual's sex conflicts with a soldier's commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one's personal life."
To implement the order, the military adopted a new policy requiring anyone with a current diagnosis or history of gender dysphoria to be separated from the military. Gender dysphoria is distress experienced when a person’s gender identity does not align with his or her birth sex.
Reyes, who was appointed by Trump's Democratic predecessor Joe Biden, found in blocking the ban on March 18, that it likely violated the U.S. Constitution's prohibition on sex discrimination.
She ruled that "transgender persons can have the warrior ethos, physical and mental health, selflessness, honor, integrity, and discipline to ensure military excellence."
(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Bill Berkrot)
