Judge rejects Trump administration bid to dismiss transgender Air Force troops’ retirement lawsuit

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has rejected the Trump administration’s attempt to knock most of the transgender service members out of a lawsuit over military retirements that the Air Force approved and then abruptly revoked.In a 10-page ruling Wednesday, U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Elaine D. Kaplan, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, denied the Justice Department’s motion to dismiss, allowing all 17 plaintiffs to continue pursuing claims that the government unlawfully stripped them of retirement pay and benefits after promising they could leave military service with early retirement.The decision keeps alive one of the most unusual legal challenges to President Donald Trump’s transgender military ban. Unlike the constitutional lawsuits contesting the ban itself, this case asks whether the government can revoke retirement orders it had already issued to transgender troops after deciding to expel them from the armed forces.Related: Judge presses Trump administration over revoked retirements for transgender Air Force troopsThe Justice Department argued that most of the plaintiffs had no right to sue because they were still serving on active duty when the lawsuit was filed and therefore had not yet suffered the financial injury required to bring a claim for retirement pay.Kaplan disagreed, writing that the government had blurred the line between whether the court has jurisdiction and whether the plaintiffs will ultimately prevail.“The government’s arguments conflate the merits of Plaintiffs’ claims with the establishment of this Court’s jurisdiction,” she wrote.The plaintiffs allege that after Trump’s 2025 executive order targeting transgender military service, the Air Force invited troops with 15 to 18 years of service to apply for early retirement under the Temporary Early Retirement Authority. Their requests were approved, and official retirement orders were issued with retirement dates in the fall of 2025. Weeks later, after new P