U.S. district court blocks Trump's transgender troop ban

Protesters against Trump's transgender troop ban.
(Image credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

A judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Monday blocked President Trump's August memo directing the Pentagon to implement a ban on transgender troops, The Associated Press reports. Trump's order, which came as a surprise in July, demanded that the Defense Department stop accepting openly transgender recruits but allowed Pentagon leadership to decide whether active transgender personnel could continue in their roles.

Monday's ruling means that the ban cannot be enforced as it is debated in courts: "U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly wrote Monday that transgender members of the military who had sued over the change were likely to win their lawsuit and barred the Trump administration from reversing course," AP writes.

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Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.