'Flag patch on Iraq War soldier's uniform' [Shutterstock]
Donald Trump's efforts to target transgender people working in government, including the military, took a hit late Wednesday when the Defense Department backed down and allowed a transgender woman soldier to return to the women's barracks. The woman had initially been isolated in a one-person room.
Judge Ana Reyes didn't issue a Temporary Restraining order, but according to legal analyst Chris Geidner, the judge ordered the government to notify the plaintiffs of any changes while she considered the order. Geidner called it "a TRO-in-waiting."
"So, the DOD stood down for now," he wrote on Blue Sky.
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In the argument, Trump's new Justice Department claimed that even if the effort "was motivated by animus," Trump should still be able to target transgender military members.
At the same time that the Justice Department defends the Trump White House in the courts, it is also purging lawyers from its staff who were affiliated with special counsel Jack Smith and fishing for resignations from other civil servants.
Trump also signed an order banning transgender people from sports and ordered that all transgender prisoners be remanded to prisons for their gender assigned at birth. There are pending lawsuits for both.
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