‘You do have an answer, you just don’t want to give it’: Judge ridicules DOJ lawyer during transgender military ban hearing

Left to right: Ana Reyes; Donald Trump.

Left: U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes during her confirmation hearings in June 2022 (U.S. Senate/YouTube). Right: President Donald Trump departs after speaking at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025 (Pool via AP).

A lawyer representing the Trump administration was repeatedly dressed down by a federal judge on Wednesday during a preliminary injunction hearing over the Pentagon’s transgender ban.

During the hearing, U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes, a Joe Biden appointee, mercilessly lambasted the government’s lawyers for what she saw as problems with their basic competence, middling legal analysis, lack of preparation, intellectual honesty, and more.

On Jan. 28, Nicolas Talbott and seven others filed their complaint with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The lawsuit alleges the ban on transgender service members violates the Due Process clause of the Fifth Amendment by discriminating against people “based on their sex and based on their transgender status.”

The complaint has since been amended multiple times to include additional transgender members of the armed forces. Now, the parties are trying to convince the judge whether or not to enjoin the ban before it goes into effect later this month as currently scheduled.

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