The ban was first proposed by the Trump administration last year, but it has been held up by legal battles.
A District Court judge has accused the Trump administration of withholding information over its proposed ban on transgender people serving in the military.
President Trump had previously written on Twitter that the ban was consulted on by U.S. generals and military experts. However, the administration has failed to disclose who these people are.
Writing in a memo, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who sits on the District Court for the District of Colombia, said that this would make it harder for any side to get a ruling in their favour if they sued.
“Defendants claim that their decisions regarding transgender military service are owed great deference because they are the product of extensive deliberation, study and review,” she wrote.
“However, at the same time, defendants have withheld information concerning this deliberation, study and review from plaintiffs. As a result, there undeniably are factual disputes in this case.
“Defendants cannot prevent plaintiffs from obtaining the facts about a disputed issue and then expect to be granted summary judgment on that issue.”
Last year, Trump announced that he was banning transgender people from serving in the military, citing medical costs and disruption. His announcement was immediately met with a backlash.
A lawsuit was filed against the proposed ban and the U.S. Defence Secretary, James Mattis, stalled it before Judge Kollar-Kotelly blocked the ban from being enforced.
Sadly, that wasn’t the end as back in March, Trump introduced a new ban, which was reportedly drafted by Vice-President Mike Pence and other anti-LGBTQ activists.
Legal battles surrounding this new ban are still ongoing, but in April a federal judge ruled that the ban could not be implemented. In her ruling, Judge Marsha Pechman ruled that transgender people were a “protected” class and Trump was not allowed to discriminate against them.
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