Washington (CNN) Justice Department lawyers shortly before midnight Wednesday asked a federal judge to dismiss a challenge to President Donald Trump's proposed transgender military ban, calling the challenge "premature several times over" because the policy has yet to go into effect.

The is the first time the Trump administration has responded to legal challenges that were triggered this summer when the President tweeted that "the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the US military."

In August, the President followed up the tweet with a directive to the secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security directing a return to "longstanding policy" that was in place prior to June 2016 that prohibited openly transgender individuals from serving the military.

Under the directive, the Pentagon and DHS are expected to halt the use of government funds for sex reassignment surgical procedures by March 23, 2018. In addition, the directive extends indefinitely a ban on the enlistment of transgender people.

Although administration lawyers argued primarily that the challenge was premature because the Pentagon is currently studying how to implement the President's directive, they also said that "federal courts owe the utmost deference to the political branches in the field of national defense and military affairs, both because the Constitution commits military decisions exclusively to those branches and because courts have less competence to second-guess military decision making."

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