A federal judge overstepped her
authority by reversing President Donald Trump’s policy for transgenders in the
U.S. armed forces, says a military watchdog.
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly
issued a preliminary injunction Oct. 30th that reversed Trump’s surprise announcement
that reversed the Obama-era policy announced in 2016. The injunction stops Trump’s order from
taking effect while a group of transgenders are suing.
“It appears that this judge wants to
be known, or thought of, as a supreme judicial commander of the military,”
complains Elaine Donnelly, President of the Center for Military Readiness. “It is highly inappropriate,” Donnelly
continues, “for a federal district judge to try to make policy for the military
or overturn the policy of the executive branch.”
“It violates the Constitution,”
responded Heritage Foundation scholar Ryan Anderson on Twitter, “to go back to
the policy that Obama had in place for seven plus years of his presidency? Really?”
Trump surprised conservatives over the
summer, and angered homosexual activists, when he tweeted that he was reversing
an order that had come late in the Obama Administration. The order reportedly surprised military
commanders, too, and it took weeks for the Pentagon to announce a plan to
implement a new policy that reverses years of homosexual-friendly policies
implemented during the Obama years. Six
service members who sued are claiming Trump’s order violates their right to
equal protection, The Washington Post
(WP) reported on last week. The judge
was “unsparing” in her ruling that claims there is “no support for the claim
that the ongoing service of transgender people would have any negative effect
on the military at all,” the WP said,
quoting the order.
The judge’s order did not address a new
policy that bars military funding for sex-reassignment surgery. Donnelly says the judge has based her
judicial opinion on the wrong premise. “Namely
egalitarianism,” she says, “as if the military exists to provide careers and
jobs. It doesn’t exist to provide
medical benefits either.” Even health
care coverage in the U.S. armed forces is related to military readiness, says
Donnelly, who predicts the judge’s order will be overturned.
Rev.
Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.
Chaplain
(Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army
Pastor,
Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel
Of course the real problem here is that congress is afraid to pass legislation that would set forth the disqualification of transgender people for military service. We have all sorts of other qualifications such as criminal records, physical disabilities, weight standards, mental illness, etc. none of which are ever brought into question. It is an attempt by the LGBTQ to try and normalize their deviant behavior as normal. As long as congress doesn't have the courage to legislate the qualifications for military service, president's will go back and forth on this issue as will the pentagon.
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