A federal court in Seattle rejected the Trump Administration’s claim that its “new” discriminatory plan to ban transgender people from serving openly in the U.S. Armed Services passes muster. Instead, the court found that the implementation plan the Administration issued in late March was not a new policy but rather threatens the very same constitutional violations and that the lawsuit brought by Lambda Legal and OutServe-SLDN can proceed to trial. Furthermore, the court also found that the effort to ban transgender people from military service must meet the most demanding level of scrutiny because it so clearly targets transgender people. Meanwhile, the preliminary injunction the court previously granted remains in place, preventing the implementation of the ban pending trial.

“The court wants to expose this bigoted ban for all of its ugliness at trial, and we are happy to oblige. If it’s a full record the judge wants, then it’s a full record we will give her,” Lambda Legal Senior Attorney Natalie Nardecchia said. “We look forward to putting the capriciousness and cruelty of this discriminatory ban against transgender people on trial, where it can be relegated for good to the trash heap of history, alongside other vile military policies that discriminated based on race, sex, and sexual orientation.”

“Until the ban is put on trial, transgender people serving or wishing to serve in the military are protected by four separate court injunctions barring its implementation,” Lambda Legal Senior Attorney Peter Renn added. “If history is any prediction of the future, the ban is still doomed at its next reckoning.”

Today’s ruling came in response to several motions argued late last month before the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. While the judge did not grant the Motion for Summary Judgment requested by Lambda Legal and OutServe-SLDN, the court also rejected the Trump Administration’s Motion to Dismiss President Trump from the lawsuit.