DOJ Seeks Early Supreme Court Review of Transgender Military Policy

As reported by SCOTUblog, the Justice Department has filed petitions for certioriari in three cases in which district courts have enjoined implementation of the Trump Administration's new policy on transgender individuals serving in the military.  The petitions in all three cases, Trump v. Karnoski, Trump v. Doe, and Trump v. Stockman, were filed before Circuit Courts of Appeal handed down decisions in the cases-- an unusual procedural step.  The Trump Administration policy-- unlike the policy adopted by the Obama Administration-- precludes most new enlistments by transgender individuals. (See prior posting.) The cert. petitions argue for the immediate granting of review:

Absent an immediate grant of certiorari, there is ... little chance of a prompt resolution of the validity of Secretary Mattis’s proposed policy. And so long as this or any other injunction remains in place, the military will be forced nationwide to maintain the Carter policy—a policy that the military has concluded poses a threat to “readiness, good order and discipline, sound leadership, and unit cohesion,” which “are essential to military effectiveness and lethality.”