If the DOJ thought they have been going to intimidate Choose Ana Reyes by asking to talk to her supervisor, they appear to have severely miscalculated.
Final week, AG Pam Bondi’s chief of employees Chad Mizelle fired off a nastygram to Chief Choose Sri Srinivasan on the DC Circuit complaining that Choose Reyes was imply to the attorneys defending the Trump administration’s anti-trans coverage. Apparently she tried as an example that singling out trans service members is arbitrarily stigmatizing by declaring that every one attorneys who attended UVA Legislation Faculty are untrustworthy and making a DOJ lawyer sit down for a minute.
“Such therapy undermines the dignity of counsel and the decorum of the courtroom,” huffed Mizelle, with no obvious irony.
This week, the Protection Division docketed its separation coverage for trans service members. It’s as vile as anticipated, declaring that gender is binary and immutable and transgender members of the navy detract from the “lethality, cohesion, honesty, humility, uniformity, and integrity” of the armed companies. On the, umm, plus facet, they’re not planning to demand reimbursement for tuition and signing bonuses for anybody who agrees to voluntary separation.
Choose Reyes, who affronted the DOJ attorneys by stating that intercourse is not binary, was not impressed.
Right here’s her minute order of this morning in its entirety:
The Court docket is in receipt of the 63 February 26, 2025 memorandum with Further Steerage on Prioritizing Navy Excellence and Readiness. In gentle of it, the Court docket Orders Defendants to file on the general public docket the next by 10:00 am March 1, 2025: 1. The entire quantity of Division of Protection (DoD) spending per yr from 2015 to 2024, and the entire total for that point interval. 2. The entire quantity of DoD spending per yr from 2015 to 2024 on psychotherapy for all service members, and the entire total for that point interval. 3. The entire quantity of DoD spending per yr from 2015 to 2024 on surgical take care of all service members, and the entire total for that point interval. 4. The entire quantity of DoD spending per yr from 2015 to 2024 on elective surgical take care of all service members, and the entire total for that point interval. 5. If publicly out there hyperlinks exist, hyperlinks to the line-item price range for DoD spending for annually between 2015 and 2024. 6. Identification of any “psychological well being constraint,” aside from gender dysphoria, that DoD has beforehand discovered to be inconsistent with “honesty, humility, and integrity.” 7. For every Plaintiff, whether or not implementation of the Motion Memo would require her or him to be separated from the Armed Forces. 8. The newest estimate made by the DoD of the variety of transgender people at the moment serving within the Armed Forces. If Defendants should not have prepared entry to “spending” quantities, they’ll present the budgeted quantities. If Defendants have any questions on this order, they need to contact Chambers with Plaintiffs’ counsel right this moment, February 27, 2025, to have them addressed.
Sometime quickly, the Supreme Court docket will barf out an opinion justifying this wanton bigotry. It can in all probability fall to Justice Gorsuch to clarify how kicking out trans service members is completely totally different from firing individuals for being trans within the personal sector — no battle with Bostock right here! However for right this moment, Choose Reyes is not going to let the Trump administration merely current their lies about trans service as information. They’ll should pony up and admit that the vanishingly small variety of trans individuals within the armed forces pose no burden to cohesion or navy finance. Or perhaps they’ll run to Chief Justice Roberts and ask him for a keep on their homework … once more.
Talbott v. Trump [Docket via Court Listener]
Liz Dye lives in Baltimore the place she produces the Legislation and Chaos substack and podcast.
