Rep. Deb Haaland (D-New Mexico) also expressed solidarity on Tuesday. The Pueblo of Laguna citizen, whose late father served in the U.S. Marine Corps, has a long record of promoting LGBT rights in New Mexico. “Preventing people from devoting their lives to their country simply due to their gender identity is a cruel affront on American values. I am incredibly disappointed by the Supreme Court’s refusal to uphold the rights of the transgender community," Haaland said in a statement. "This irrational ban distracts from service, does nothing to promote military readiness, and directly opposes the American belief in coming together to support our country regardless of background," said Haaland, who also displayed a transgender flag outside her Congressional office door. Native Americans serve in the armed forces at the highest rates per capita of any racial or ethnic group. And a number of tribes, including Ho-Chunk and Laguna, have maintained traditions of tolerance and respect for transgender and two-spirit people.To all the brave trans troops serving our country: I stand w/ you. As you have committed to protecting our nation, we'll continue fighting to protect your rights here at home. Today’s court ruling is a stark reminder of the inequalities that exist &the work left ahead of us.
— Congresswoman Sharice Davids (@RepDavids) January 22, 2019
But President Donald Trump, with a March 2018 directive, said troops who are transgender and wish to be recognized as such are "disqualified from military service except under certain limited circumstances." A statement from the White House press secretary at the time called these service members a "considerable risk to military effectiveness and lethality." The action was the result of a hasty ban first announced by the president on Twitter eight months prior. It reversed an Obama-era policy to allow transgender people to serve openly in the armed forces. Trump's Twitter decision was immediately challenged in the courts, with affected troops across the nation winning four injunctions that prevented the ban from being implemented. As of January 4, three of those injunctions had remained in place. By then, however, the Trump administration was already taking extraordinary legal steps to reinstate the president's ban. The Department of Justice asked the Supreme Court to take on the three outstanding cases even before they had been considered at the appeals level. The petitions all three of those cases were denied on Tuesday, according to the order list. That rebuffed the Trump administration's attempt to leap-frog over the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, where the transgender service members had won injunctions, as well as the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, where an injunction was dissolved earlier this month. But the news was by no means a setback. That's because the Supreme Court, on thefirst page of the order list, had already given the president a key victory by granting his other extraordinary request to stay the injunctions pending further appeals. And with that move, the court enabled the military to implement Trump's policy without the threat of injunctions. “The department is pleased with the orders issued by the Supreme Court,” Air Force Lt. Col. Carla Gleason, a spokesperson for the Department of Defense, said on Tuesday. “We will continue to work with the Department of Justice regarding next steps in the pending lawsuits.” According to Gleason, the department is not implementing a "ban on service by transgender persons." However, she acknowledged that a transgender person must have have been "stable for 36 consecutive months in their biological sex prior to accession" if they wish to serve their country. The distinction effectively prevents a transgender service member from being recognized as such, advocates said. "The Trump administration’s cruel obsession with ridding our military of dedicated and capable service members because they happen to be transgender defies reason and cannot survive legal review," Jennifer Levi, the director of the transgender rights project at GLAD (GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders), said in a statement.The trans flag is displayed proudly outside my office door today. #ProtectTransTroops pic.twitter.com/EIEccyG0VM
— Congresswoman Deb Haaland (@RepDebHaaland) January 23, 2019
The three petitions denied by the Supreme Court on Tuesday were Trump v. Karnoski, Trump v. Jane Doe 2 and Trump v. Stockman. Karnoski and Stockman are pending in the 9th Circuit while Jane Doe 2 is in the D.C. Circuit. Although those petitions were denied, the Supreme Court on Tuesday granted applications in No. 18A625 to stay Karnoski and in No. 18A625 to stay Stockman. According to the order list, Justice Ruth Ginsburg, Justice Stephen G. Breyer, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and Justice Elena Kagan "would deny the application" in both cases. They are the liberal leaning members of the court. That means Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., Justice Clarence Thomas, Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., Justice Neil Gorsuch and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the more conservative members, voted to approve both applications. Gorsuch and Kavanaugh are new arrivals, having been nominated by President Trump.Two-Spirit Voices: Returning to the Circle | Exhibition Opening in San Francisco, Jan 2019 https://t.co/EheNnuqMSi
— Pennie Opal Plant (@PennieOpal) December 18, 2018
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