‘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 federal judge who earned the Trump administration’s ire asked the Pentagon several pointed questions in response to the transgender service member ban in an unusual court order on Thursday.

Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes, a Joe Biden appointee, repeatedly ridiculed the legal position taken by the U.S. Department of Justice in the underlying litigation. During that lengthy hearing, the judge even went so far as to illustrate her opinion of the anti-transgender policy by mockingly barring graduates of the University of Virginia law school from her courtroom — a pointed rejoinder to the DOJ lawyer arguing the government’s position.

The two-day hearing concerned a preliminary injunction request. Lead plaintiff Nicolas Talbott and seven others allege the ban violates the Due Process clause of the Fifth Amendment by discriminating against people “based on their sex and based on their transgender status.”

The government, for their part, has argued that reading the policy guidelines in Executive Order 14183 as an outright ban is not correct — because the Pentagon could use discretion to craft a policy that might not apply universally to all transgender people in the armed forces.

On Wednesday, the Pentagon implemented President Donald Trump‘s policy preferences, which were added to the docket as a 13-page filing. A short, 2-page memo bearing the subject line “Additional Guidance on Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness” rescinds various Biden-era pro-transgender policies. An accompanying 11-page attachment uses the term “gender dysphoria” to set out the Trump administration’s vision.

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