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1 (July 5, 2018)

handle is hein.crs/crsmthzzaxy0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Questions Remain, Litigation Continues, over Military Service by Transgender Individuals Christine J. Back Legislative Attorney July 5, 2018 At present, the ability of openly transgender individuals to enlist and serve in the military, and receive certain military-funded medical care, remains unclear. Four lawsuits challenging the President's August 25, 2017, memorandum concerning transgender individuals in the military continue to work their way through federal courts in the District of Columbia (Doe v. Trump), Maryland (Stone v. Trump), California (Stockman v. Trump), and Washington (Karnoski v. Trump). While this litigation was underway, the President issued a second memorandum on March 23, 2018, revoking the first memorandum, and providing for further policies with respect to transgender persons. The effect of this second memorandum on these four cases and the legal arguments they raise-including a constitutional challenge to the President's first memorandum on Fifth Amendment equal protection grounds-has yet to be definitively resolved by the courts. This sidebar discusses the procedural background of these lawsuits, the President's first and second memoranda, and the issues that may come before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (Ninth Circuit), which could be the first federal appellate court to determine the constitutionality of the President's latest policies on military service by transgender persons. The President's First Memorandum In the August 25, 2017, memorandum, President Trump ordered the Department of Defense (DoD) to implement three principal directives: 1) to continue prohibiting the accession (i.e., enlisting) of openly transgender individuals in the military indefinitely; 2) to return to a policy that authorized the discharge of such individuals; and 3) to halt military-funded sex-reassignment surgery, except to the extent necessary to protect the health of an individual who has already begun a course of treatment to reassign his or her sex. Under the terms of the memorandum, the accession directive would become effective January 1, 2018, while the latter two directives-sometimes referred to as the retention and sex reassignment surgery directives, respectively-were to take effect March 23, 2018. Congressional Research Service 7-5700 CRS Legal Sidebar www.crs.gov LSB10165 Prepared for Members and Committees of Conaress

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