(National Sentinel) Fast-Track: The Trump administration is bypassing lower federal courts and going straight to the U.S. Supreme Court in an attempt to convince justices to reimpose the president’s ban on allowing transgender troops to serve in the military.
The Friday court filing is just the latest in a series of high-profile cases in which the administration has passed on the normal judicial procedure by taking petitions directly to the nation’s highest court. Currently, lower federal courts — one in California and one in the District of Columbia — are considering the president’s trans-ban.
“The district court in this case entered a nationwide preliminary injunction nullifying that exercise of professional military judgment and blocking the implementation of a policy that the secretary has deemed necessary to ‘place the Department of Defense in the strongest position to protect the American people, to fight and win America’s wars, and to ensure the survival and success of our service members around the world,’” the petition said.
The filing, which is unusual, is called a petition for certiorari before judgment. It means the administration wants the Supreme Court to hear the case before the lower courts have rendered judgments.
Recently, the administration has filed petitions for cert before judgment in cases concerning the citizenship question on the 2020 census questionnaire and termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, The Daily Caller reported.
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POTUS Trump announced via Twitter that he was reversing the Obama-era policy of permitting transgender troops to serve. Former Defense Secretary Ashton Carter had provided for trans soldiers to openly serve in June 2016, under Obama’s instructions.
As soon as POTUS made his announcement, his policy was challenged in court. But when Obama instructed his Pentagon to make the change to allow transgenders to serve, there were no legal challenges — because as commander-in-chief, he had the authority to make the policy change.
Which means that POTUS Trump should have the same authority to reverse it.
The Left is arguing that the president has somehow violated the Constitution’s due process, equal protection, and First Amendment protections. But that argument assumes that Americans have a right to serve in the military.
They don’t. Service is a privilege, not a right, and as such is then subject to the policy preferences the commander-in-chief based on the Pentagon’s recommendations and his best judgment as to what will constitute a fighting force that is the most capable of defending the country.
The Left doesn’t care about the military’s primary mission. The Left cares only about its social and cultural objectives, which is to destroy or undermine our traditional values. This is just another way to do it.
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