Transgender Military Service

Executive Order 14183, signed January 27, 2025, directed the Department of Defense to bar transgender people from military service, on the stated ground that the Armed Forces must meet health standards "without the benefit of routine medical treatment or special provisions." Because the defendants are federal, the equal protection claim runs through the Fifth Amendment rather than the Fourteenth, and the fight has been about the level of scrutiny a classification based on gender identity receives, and how much deference military judgment is owed once that scrutiny applies. Two constitutional challenges have run in parallel since early 2025, Talbott in Washington and Shilling in Seattle, each producing a preliminary injunction and each now on appeal. A third line concerns money rather than service: transgender members whose retirements were rescinded have sued in the Court of Federal Claims. In July 2026 the Secretary of War announced annual testosterone screening and voluntary testosterone replacement therapy for service members 30 and older, and Judge Reyes took judicial notice of it, ordering the parties to explain why the same treatment is routine care for some service members and a disqualifying special provision for others.