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Federal Judge Blocks Pentagon From Enforcing Trump’s Transgender Military Ban

White House temporarily prevented from overturning Obama-era policy

A federal court has partially blocked President Donald Trump’s ban on transgender troops serving in the military.

The order, issued on Monday by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, temporarily prevents the military from enforcing administration’s directive to bar transgender individuals from enlisting or serving, but it upholds the portion banning personnel from undergoing sex reassignment surgery.

The injunction prevents the Pentagon from enforcing the ban while the case against it is being reviewed by the courts.

In 2016, the Obama administration reversed the military’s longstanding ban on transgender troops. But Trump reversed course in July 26 tweets stating that the U.S. military would return to the ban, a policy formalized in August when he directed the Defense Department and Department of Homeland Security to reinstate the ban.

The National Center for Lesbian Rights and GLAAD sued the administration on behalf of multiple unnamed troops and recruits in August. In a statement to Politico, Jennifer Levi, one of the groups’ lawyers, said it was an “enormously important decision.”

Read the full order here via the Huffington Post.