The Pentagon sought the delay as it studies how to implement the president's wishes. But the court wasn't convinced the matter is so urgent. | Getty Images Justice Dept. seeks emergency halt to transgender troop deadline

The Trump administration on Monday night requested an emergency stay to a court decision that would require the Defense Department to begin accepting transgender recruits on Jan. 1.

The action came hours after the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said the military must begin accepting transgender recruits on New Year's Day — the latest action to stall President Donald Trump’s proposed ban.


The Justice Department then turned to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, saying the Pentagon will still be reviewing the policy until February but needs a stay now.

“Without this relief, the military will be forced to implement a significant change to its standards for the composition of the armed forces before it decides how to resolve this issue,” the government’s motion for an emergency stay says. “As military leadership has explained, this timetable will place extraordinary burdens on our armed forces and may harm military readiness.”

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U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly had denied a similar request Monday afternoon, after the administration had sought an emergency stay last week.

The Pentagon had originally set the Jan. 1 deadline before Trump declared a ban on all transgender military personnel earlier this year. The Defense Department now wants a delay as it studies how to implement the president's wishes, but Kollar-Kotelly wasn't convinced the matter is so urgent.

"The Court notes that Defendants’ portrayal of their situation as an emergency is belied by their litigation tactics. The Court issued its preliminary injunction requiring Defendants to comply with the January 1, 2018 deadline on October 30, 2017," Kollar-Kotelly wrote in her opinion. "Defendants did not file an appeal of that decision until November 21, 2017, and did not file the current motion for a stay of that deadline until December 6, 2017, requesting a decision by noon today, December 11, 2017."

“If complying with the military’s previously established January 1, 2018 deadline to begin accession was as unmanageable as defendants now suggest," she added, "one would have expected defendants to act with more alacrity."

The White House said Monday that the Pentagon will move forward with plans to recruit transgender personnel next month.

“As of right now, they’re simply complying with a court order and preparing to implement a previous policy to remain in compliance," press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters. "The Department of Justice is currently reviewing the legal options to ensure that the president’s directive can be implemented.”

The Pentagon said it plans to comply with the judge's order by using the parameters it drafted in 2016 for transgender recruits.

In explaining those guidelines, it said in a statement that "a history of gender dysphoria is disqualifying unless, as certified by a licensed medical provider, the applicant has been stable without clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning for 18 months.

"Additionally," it added, "a history of medical treatment associated with gender transition is disqualifying unless, as certified by a licensed medical provider, the applicant has completed all medical treatment associated with the applicant's gender transition, the applicant has been stable in the preferred gender for 18 months, and if presently receiving cross-sex hormone therapy post-gender transition, the individual has been stable on such hormones for 18 months."

The plaintiffs in the court case are GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders and the National Center for Lesbian Rights on behalf of active-duty transgender troops.

