Block of Trump's Transgender Ban
Yesterday, October 30, a federal judge blocked President Trump's ban on transgender troops in the military. This ban, which was issued in August, would require the discharge of all transgender military personnel starting in March of 2018.
The ban has been blocked by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the Federal District Court in Washington, D.C., on the grounds that she believes that it may be unconstitutional and in violation of the Fifth Amendment, which, among other things, ensures the right to due process of law. Judge Kollar-Kotelly cites the fact that no evidence has been presented to support Trump and the DOJ's claims that transgender servicepeople are a burden to the military, socially or financially.
Among Trump's reasons for banning transgender people from serving in the military was that the cost of medical care for transgender people would place too much of a financial strain on the military. This point has already been proven to be false; firstly, because it has been shown that these health care cost would increase military spending by less than .5%. Secondly, this claim is ridiculous, as it was revealed in July that the military currently spends an exorbitant amount of money annually on Viagara and other erectile dysfunction medications (Here is a link to a WaPo article with the exact data).
Though the ban is not yet completely off the table, this ruling comes as a major blow to the Trump administration, and will hopefully result in a complete dissolution of the ban.
For more information, you can read this CNN article about what happened on Monday.