Federal lawsuit in New Jersey seeks to overturn Trump ban on transgender service members

Two men serving in the U.S. Air Force have filed a lawsuit in Camden federal court seeking to overturn President Donald Trump’s executive order banning transgender service members in the military.

In a separate legal challenge, a federal judge in Washington ruled Tuesday evening that the ban is unconstitutional, but stayed her order until Friday to allow the government to appeal.

In the New Jersey lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Christine P. O’Hearn in Camden earlier on Tuesday ordered a hearing in the case scheduled for Monday.

In a complaint dated March 17, lawyers for Master Sgt. Logan Ireland and Staff Sgt. Nicholas Bear Bade argue that the ban is a violation of the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment, which prohibits the federal government from denying any person equal protection of the laws.

Trump signed his order Jan. 27 reversing the existing policy of the U.S. military to allow transgender service members.

Bade is stationed at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in Burlington County, and Ireland recently was stationed there as part of a multi-week training program, the complaint says.

“They have built their lives around their military service and hope to stay in the Air Force until retirement,” the complaint says.

Under Trump’s order, both plaintiffs have been placed on administrative absence and have been told they can continue to serve only if they do so as women, the complaint says.

“It is not possible, though, for either Plaintiff to serve as a woman because each one has medically transitioned to be and live as a man,” the complaint says.

Both plaintiffs fear that as early as next week, involuntary administrative separation proceedings will be initiated against them because of their transgender status, the complaint says.

The Trump administration has singled out transgender people “to brand them as inherently immoral and unfit,” according to the complaint, but the plaintiffs’ lawyers argue that they have a constitutional right not to be separated and that their transgender status “has nothing to do with their fitness or ability to serve.”

The Associated Press reported last week that roughly 2,000 transgender people serve in the military, a number representing less than 1% of the total number of active-duty service members.

Ireland and Bade are represented by Stapleton Segal Cochran LLC in Marlton, Langer Grogan & Diver P.C. in Philadelphia, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders in Boston, and the National Center for Lesbian Rights in San Francisco.

According to the complaint, Ireland, 37, has been with the Air Force for 14 years and is currently a flight chief in the Office of Special Investigations.

Ireland has completed tours of duty in Afghanistan, South Korea, and the United Arab Emirates, the complaint says. He has received numerous accolades and recently received his command’s number-one endorsement recommendation to receive an officer commission. In January, he applied to Officer Training School.

On March 6 while at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, Ireland “was told by his leadership that he would have to comply with female regulations and standards, including dress, grooming, and facilities standards. Because he is a man, he cannot do this,” the complaint says. Ireland has since been made to involuntarily return to his home base in Hawaii.

Last week, he learned that his application for Officer Training School was denied without explanation, the complaint says.

Bade, 44, has served in the Air Force for six years and recently was deployed to Ali Al Salem Airbase in Kuwait as a member of the base’s security forces, the complaint says. He was supposed to remain in Kuwait until April.

Bade was told he could voluntarily begin separation, be involuntarily separated, or leave his deployment and temporarily go on administrative absence, the complaint says. He chose to go on temporary administrative absence and was forced to return to his home base in New Jersey.

“Having to return to his home base because of the ban has also resulted in Staff Sergeant Bade’s status as a transgender male being made generally known to other members of the military, exposing information that he previously treated as private medical information,” the complaint says.