Donald Trump says US military will not allow transgender people to serve
The administration asked the court on Friday to take up three cases on the issue. Lower courts had blocked the administration from implementing the policy.
A three-judge panel of the ninth US circuit court of appeals heard arguments in one of the cases in October but has not ruled.
The administration had warned that it would ask the high court to step in if the appeals court did not rule before Friday. The administration wants the supreme court to be able to rule on the issue before the summer.
The justices do not typically take cases before federal appeals courts rule on them.
District courts across the country have so far blocked the policy from going into effect. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in one challenge earlier this fall and the DC Circuit will hear arguments in early December.
The administration had warned that it would ask the high court to step in if the appeals court did not rule before Friday. The administration wants the supreme court to be able to rule on the issue before the summer.
The justices do not typically take cases before federal appeals courts rule on them.
District courts across the country have so far blocked the policy from going into effect. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in one challenge earlier this fall and the DC Circuit will hear arguments in early December.
On Friday, Solicitor General Noel Francisco filed petitions asking the justices to take up the issue in three separate cases that are still in lower courts so it could be decided definitively this term. Francisco argues that lower court rulings imposing nationwide injunctions are wrong and warrant immediate review.
He writes because of the injunctions, "the military has been forced to maintain that prior policy for nearly a year" despite a determination by Mattis and a panel of experts that the "prior policy, adopted by (Defense Secretary Ash Carter), posed too great a risk to military effectiveness and lethality."
Earlier in the month, the Department of Justice warned the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that it planned to ask for emergency relief to lift the nationwide injunction.
The filing comes after Chief Justice John Roberts and Trump got into a public dispute about the independence of the judiciary this week. Roberts issued a rare statement on Wednesday criticizing the President for calling one lower court judge who ruled against him an "Obama judge." The President responded via Twitter criticizing Roberts and accusing the American judiciary of undermining national security.
Under normal circumstances, the Supreme Court does not like to take up an issue before it has made its way through the lower courts. The justices like to have issues percolate below so that they can benefit from the opinions of lower court judges.
Francisco has moved aggressively at times to get cases before a Supreme Court that is more solidly conservative with the addition of Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Francisco asked the justices to step in to review the lower court's decision in a case related to the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 Census. He also asked them to review an adverse lower court opinion blocking the proposed phase-out of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
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