Hegseth Proposes a Challenge to Judge Blocking Military Transgender Ban
Last week saw yet another wave of temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions from an apparently endless supply of district court judges willing to compromise their reputations and integrity in an effort to block President Donald Trump’s agenda.
Among them was District Judge Ana Reyes (District of Columbia) who issued an injunction blocking the implementation of Trump’s executive order to ban transgender individuals from enlisting or serving in the military.
Recognizing that Reyes, a highly partisan lesbian judge from Uruguay, lacks an understanding of the potential problems a transgender individual’s presence could create for the military, especially in wartime, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth proposed a challenge.
In a Saturday post on X, he suggested: “Since ‘Judge’ Reyes is now a top military planner, she/they can report to Fort Benning at 0600 to instruct our Army Rangers on how to execute High Value Target Raids…after that, Commander Reyes can dispatch to Fort Bragg to train our Green Berets on counterinsurgency warfare.”
Huzzah Secretary.
Judge Reyes was confirmed by the Senate two years ago by a vote of 51-47. At the time, The Washington Blade, “America’s LGBTQ News Source,” touted Reyes as “the first Latino woman and the first openly LGBTQ person to serve as a judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.”
Before her confirmation, Reyes was a partner at the D.C.-based law firm Williams and Connolly. Quoting from her biography on the firm’s website, The Blade reported Reyes had focused on legal issues “ranging from foreign immunity to international contract disputes to patent enforcement.”
“Besides this work, for more than a decade Ana has devoted significant time to her pro bono representations of asylum seekers and refugee organizations, including numerous appellate matters for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and impact litigation for Human Rights First,” according to Williams and Connolly.
We get the picture. There is nothing in her resume that qualifies her to make policy decisions for the military. A closer look at how Reyes arrived at her reckless and ill-advised ruling shows just how far out over her skis she is.
Paul Biegler, a district attorney, took a deep dive into the case and reported his findings in a detailed thread on X. For starters, Reyes cited the Broadway musical “Hamilton” in her decision. Even fans who loved the play admit “it is not entirely fact-based and includes some fictionalized elements for dramatic effect.”
Biegler notes that “during a routine hearing” about Trump’s executive order “where the only issues were ripeness of the case and ultimate likelihood of success, Judge Reyes took issue with the Admin’s assertion that there were only two sexes, leading to [an] astounding footnote.”
[T]his executive order is premised on an assertion that’s not biologically correct. There are anywhere near about 30 different intersex examples. So, someone who does not have just an XX or XY chromosome is not just male or female; they’re intersex. …
[The rest of Biegler’s thread can be viewed by clicking on the first post.]
Referring to Reyes’s use of “Hamilton” as evidence in a legal case, Harvard Law School professor Adrian Vermeule joked that he “[w]ould honestly prefer Berdyaev’s footnote ‘it was revealed to me in a dream.'”
RedState’s Streiff, an Army veteran, provided an interesting perspective:
No one has an inherent right to serve in the Armed Forces. When the person suffers from a diagnosable mental illness and requires daily infusions of hormones and other drugs as well as surgery at government expense to live their best fantasy life, they shouldn’t be allowed near weapons, ammunition, or explosives. From what we’ve seen of the impact of transgender “women” on women’s athletic teams, you’d have to be a moron not to think they would have a much more deleterious effect while living in close quarters in barracks or deployed.It is easy for Reyes to make the decisions she’s made so far because she has never served in the military and will never have to live with the consequences of her actions.
The Democrats’ relentless use of lawfare to obstruct Trump’s agenda has reached the point of insanity. This week, two bills will be introduced in Congress to address the issue, but the most effective and immediate solution would be intervention by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. He must take action now—failure to do so would be a clear dereliction of duty.
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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