{"id":108575,"date":"2025-02-18T16:02:53","date_gmt":"2025-02-19T00:02:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/02\/18\/judge-obliterates-doj-lawyer-at-transgender-ban-hearing\/"},"modified":"2025-02-18T16:02:53","modified_gmt":"2025-02-19T00:02:53","slug":"judge-obliterates-doj-lawyer-at-transgender-ban-hearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/02\/18\/judge-obliterates-doj-lawyer-at-transgender-ban-hearing\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge Obliterates DOJ Lawyer At Transgender Ban Hearing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Judge Ana Reyes heard the challenge to Trump\u2019s transgender service member ban. It did not go well for the DOJ. <\/p>\n

Technically, it wasn\u2019t a \u201cban\u201d but an executive order titled \u201cPrioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness<\/a>.\u201d Though instead of canceling the F-35 or anything that might actually improve military readiness, the order calls out \u201cgender identity inconsistent with an individual\u2019s sex\u201d as incompatible with military service because it would violate \u201ca soldier\u2019s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one\u2019s personal life.\u201d<\/p>\n

This screwball honor code articulation represents the work of Trump\u2019s remedial school attorneys to circumvent the legal obstacles of a ban. It\u2019s like Orwellian newspeak but much more stupid.<\/p>\n

Judge Reyes did not appreciate this coy effort to disguise the ban as something else, noting that if the infamously unable to shut up president were asked directly if this was intended as a ban on transgender service members he\u2019d say \u201cof course, it is\u201d \u2014 a phrasing that\u2019s probably too coherent for him, but the sentiment is what matters. <\/p>\n

But Reyes dismantled the DOJ\u2019s effort to downplay gender animus in a scathing back-and-forth with DOJ attorney Jason Lynch, whom Chris Geidner notes is a 9-year DOJ veteran out of UVA Law<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Hold onto this detail.<\/p>\n

As the hearing continued to plummet into lunacy, Judge Reyes questioned how the government thought it could avoid showing \u201canimus\u201d by recasting the ban as a matter of the service members\u2019 honor. Of all the roundabout efforts to get this ban, basing it on accusations of dishonor and lying seems the least likely to get there. That brought us to the following exchange (image hat tip to Michael Paulauski on Bluesky<\/a>):<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

See, in that scenario, I would simply curl up into a ball and asked to be left at the defense table to die. This whole \u201cbeing Trump\u2019s personal lawyer<\/a>\u201d thing isn\u2019t working out too well for DOJ staff.<\/p>\n

I know the job market is flooded with DOJ resignations right now, but it might be time to get out of this case before the stench of this representation hangs onto his career forever.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The post Judge Obliterates DOJ Lawyer At Transgender Ban Hearing<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Judge Ana Reyes heard the challenge to Trump\u2019s transgender service member ban. It did not go well for the DOJ. <\/p>\n

Technically, it wasn\u2019t a \u201cban\u201d but an executive order titled \u201cPrioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness<\/a>.\u201d Though instead of canceling the F-35 or anything that might actually improve military readiness, the order calls out \u201cgender identity inconsistent with an individual\u2019s sex\u201d as incompatible with military service because it would violate \u201ca soldier\u2019s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one\u2019s personal life.\u201d<\/p>\n

This screwball honor code articulation represents the work of Trump\u2019s remedial school attorneys to circumvent the legal obstacles of a ban. It\u2019s like Orwellian newspeak but much more stupid.<\/p>\n

Judge Reyes did not appreciate this coy effort to disguise the ban as something else, noting that if the infamously unable to shut up president were asked directly if this was intended as a ban on transgender service members he\u2019d say \u201cof course, it is\u201d \u2014 a phrasing that\u2019s probably too coherent for him, but the sentiment is what matters. <\/p>\n

But Reyes dismantled the DOJ\u2019s effort to downplay gender animus in a scathing back-and-forth with DOJ attorney Jason Lynch, whom Chris Geidner notes is a 9-year DOJ veteran out of UVA Law<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Hold onto this detail.<\/p>\n

As the hearing continued to plummet into lunacy, Judge Reyes questioned how the government thought it could avoid showing \u201canimus\u201d by recasting the ban as a matter of the service members\u2019 honor. Of all the roundabout efforts to get this ban, basing it on accusations of dishonor and lying seems the least likely to get there. That brought us to the following exchange (image hat tip to Michael Paulauski on Bluesky<\/a>):<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

See, in that scenario, I would simply curl up into a ball and asked to be left at the defense table to die. This whole \u201cbeing Trump\u2019s personal lawyer<\/a>\u201d thing isn\u2019t working out too well for DOJ staff.<\/p>\n

I know the job market is flooded with DOJ resignations right now, but it might be time to get out of this case before the stench of this representation hangs onto his career forever.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Judge Ana Reyes heard the challenge to Trump\u2019s transgender service member ban. It did not go well for the DOJ. Technically, it wasn\u2019t a \u201cban\u201d but an executive order titled \u201cPrioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness.\u201d Though instead of canceling the F-35 or anything that might actually improve military readiness, the order calls out \u201cgender identity […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":108554,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Headshot-rusSBc.jpeg?fit=500%2C333&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}