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Federal Appeals Court Finds Trump’s Transgender Military Ban Unconstitutional, Based Upon Animus

Happy Pride Month, everyone! Settle in for the next 30 days and be thankful it's not 31.

As we reported last month, a judge threw out the human trafficking case against Maryland man Kilmar Abrego Garcia, claiming that it was "vindictive prosecution" by the Trump administration after being embarrassed by having to bring Abrego Garcia back to the U.S. from El Salvador, his home country. Now, in a 2-1 ruling, a three-judge panel has found that the Trump administration's policy banning transgender individuals from serving in the military is unconstitutional, with one judge writing that it appeared to be driven by "the bare desire to harm a politically unpopular group."

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… upon animus, and for those reasons the Policy violates Plaintiff-Appellees' constitutional right to equal protection of the law."

ABC News added that Judge Roger Wilkins wrote that the ban "appears to be driven by the bare desire to harm a politically unpopular group" and that "the decision only applies to the service members who sued the administration and does not bar the Pentagon from blocking transgender people from joining the military."

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No, but you can't disqualify people from "politically unpopular groups." You can disqualify them for hundreds of other reasons, but not that one.

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