Order In The Court!

As many of you know Trump is being sued over his ban on trans servicemembers; he is saying that the new policy was discussed with generals.

One of the things that President Obama did was have an independent review of the military accepting trans servicemembers, do you remember the RAND Report? Also the William’s Institute conducted it own research on the topic. President Obama didn’t request the RAND Report just to study trans in the military on a whim but to satisfy a legal requirement.

So now with Trump he wants to change the policy and he said he talked it over with some generals before he created his policy, well now he is in court…

What's Trump Hiding on Trans Military Ban?
A Justice Department lawyer says the administration doesn't have to reveal certain details about the decision on the ban, but a judge says not so fast.
The Advocate
By Trudy Ring
February 16 2018

The Trump administration wants to keep secret the details of how it reached the decision to reinstate the ban on military service by transgender people.

A Justice Department lawyer argued this week, in one of the lawsuits challenging the ban, that executive privilege means the administration doesn’t have to turn over the information, BuzzFeed reports. But U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who is hearing the suit, says that privilege isn’t absolute.

The Justice Department doesn’t want to reveal “certain information regarding meetings or conversations the president had” before his tweet last July announcing reinstatement of the ban, according to BuzzFeed. Donald Trump tweeted that he’d reached the decision “after consultation with my Generals and other military experts.” However, President Barack Obama and his Defense secretary, Ash Carter, had engaged in extensive study and consultation with experts before lifting the ban in 2016.
[…]
The challengers want the administration to turn over information about which generals and experts were consulted by Trump, and what meetings and conversations they had, BuzzFeed reports. Justice Department lawyer Ryan Parker contended that those details could be kept confidential because of the presidential communications privilege, a form of executive privilege that protects the president from having to reveal certain information regarding executive decisions. Another form of executive privilege, the deliberative process privilege, protects less information, and even the presidential communications privilege is not absolute, BuzzFeed notes.

The judge is not having any of it.

She is studying it now and will respond after she had time to review the law on executive privilege, this is the heart of the case; if Trump didn‘t have a thorough review of the legal issues and did it on a whim we win. So it shall be very interesting to see how she decides, whichever way she decides you can bet the other side will appeal her decision.

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Another article in the Advocate says that Trump will reveal his new trans policy later today.

Amid Legal Chaos, New Trans Military Policy Expected Wednesday
But will the administration keep in mind that courts have taken a dim view of banning transgender troops?
By Trudy Ring
February 20, 2018

The Department of Defense is likely to announce a new policy on service by transgender troops this week, even though the Trump administration’s ban on trans service members has been temporarily blocked by four federal courts.

Also, emails have been made public that, if authentic, provide evidence that Donald Trump did not consult with military leaders before announcing the ban via Twitter last July, reversing the action by President Barack Obama’s administration to lift the ban. Lifting the ban meant trans people already in the military could serve openly without fear of being discharged solely for their identity, and paved the way for enlistment of new openly trans troops.
[…]
“As Sec. Mattis prepares to release the road map for implementing President Trump’s ban tomorrow, he should keep in mind that four federal courts have blocked the ban from going into effect and have ruled that the only constitutional option is to apply the same standards to every service member, meaning that troops who are fit for duty can serve,” said a statement issued by Aaron Belkin, director of the Palm Center, a think tank that deals, among other issues, with sexual minorities in the military.

I will publish the policy once it is released later today.

No matter what the new policy says, remember it is up to the courts to decide if the ban on trans servicemember was purely political based.