Thread by @marty_lederman

UPDATE on the Military Transgender Policy Cases:

1/ Last Thursday, the judge in the Maryland case challenging the Mattis policy stayed his preliminary injunction, one of the two that remained after SCOTUS stayed the other two.

@just_security
#transgender

2/ The next day, judges Wilkins and Williams issued separate opinions in the D.C. Circuit case (below), which triggered a court-ordered 21-day period for the plaintiffs to file a petition for rehearing or petition for rehearing en banc.

cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/opini…

3/ Assuming no such petition is filed, the CTADC clerk will issue the mandate in that case on April 5, at which point there will no longer be any outstanding injunctions against implementing the Mattis policy.

Meanwhile, DOJ informed the Maryland court ...

4/ ... that the Acting SecDef “plans to release a Directive-Type Memorandum (DTM) formally implementing the new policy in the near future” but that it won’t take effect until 30 days after its release. Because that will be sometime after April 5, ...

5/ ... the Mattis policy will go into effect 30 days after Acting SecDef Shanahan issues his “DTM” (assuming no rehearing petition is filed in D.C.). For what this'll mean as a practical matter, . . .

6/ ... take a look at the charts in Williams's opinion, and my earlier post.

justsecurity.org/62128/untangli…

Current service-members who have already received a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria before the DSM goes into effect are "grandfathered" into the Carter plan:

7/ They can transition (at DOD’s expense), and at some point act in accordance with the grooming, uniform and facilities rules for persons of their experienced (and thus transitioned) gender. Virtually all other currently serving transgender persons ...

8/ ... can remain in the military, and (according to DOJ/DOD) be “openly” transgender (in the sense of being able to publicly disclose that they're transgender), but may not transition or be subject to different grooming/uniform/facilities rules.

9. In the unlikely event some current service-members receive a diagnosis of gender dysphoria *after* the DSM goes into effect, presumably they'll be required to leave the armed forces.

10. Yesterday, March 12, Undersecretary of Defense David Norquist, performing the Duties of the vacant Office of Deputy SecDef, issued the promised "Directive-Type Memorandum," which specifies that the Mattis policy is to become effective April 12.

washingtonblade.com/content/files/…

11. If the plaintiffs in the D.C. case do not file a petition for rehearing by March 29, the final injunction will be lifted no later than April 5, which would allow DOD to implement the Mattis policy on April 12. If, however, the plaintiffs do file a petition by March 29, ...

12. ... then DOD will not be legally permitted to institute the new policy until seven days after the (uncertain) date of the D.C. Circuit's final action on that petition, which might be before or after April 12.