Trump asks court to dismiss lawsuit over transgender military ban

The Trump administration reportedly has requested that a federal court dismiss a lawsuit against his transgender military ban.

“That challenge is premature several times over,” said a brief submitted in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., by the Department of Justice (DOJ), BuzzFeed News reported.

The brief was in response to a lawsuit brought by transgender soldiers over Trump’s ban.

One of the plaintiffs was reportedly “scheduled to undergo surgery in September of this year, but as a result of the directive, her medical treatment has been halted,” according to BuzzFeed.

The DOJ attorneys said in the 44-page brief that it is too early for courts to consider blocking the ban, as “no actual discharge or denial of accession has occurred.”

“They will not suffer a hardship if the Court withholds consideration until after the policies challenged in this case are implemented and are found to impact Plaintiffs,” the brief said. “The Court lacks jurisdiction and should dismiss Plaintiffs’ claims.”

The attorneys added that the “speculative harms that Plaintiffs believe may occur in the future, once the policy is formulated and implemented, cannot be redressed by the Court’s equitable powers at this stage.”

Trump last month signed a presidential memo instructing the Defense Department to stop accepting transgender people who want to enlist in the military.

Trump’s memo also instructs Secretary of Defense James Mattis to further explore how to handle transgender people currently serving in the armed forces.

It orders the Pentagon to stop paying for sex reassignment surgeries, except in cases that are already in progress to “protect the health of an individual.”

It also says the Pentagon should develop an implementation plan for the ban by February. That plan would be put in place in March. 

Several lawsuits were filed in response to Trump’s transgender military ban.