A federal judge has blocked enforcement of President Donald Trump’s executive order banning transgender people from military service, the latest in a string of legal setbacks for his sweeping agenda.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday he would speak with Trump later in the day and expected to hear more about the American leader’s phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin about a ceasefire and to discuss the next steps to be taken.
Here's the latest:
Trump’s schedule today
According to the White House press office, Trump will receive an intelligence briefing at 11 a.m. ET.
Later this afternoon, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt will hold a press briefing at 1 p.m. ET.
A look at the judge who blocked Trump’s deportations and is now facing calls for impeachment
The federal judge who ruled against Trump’s deportation plans and is now facing calls for his impeachment is no stranger to politically fraught cases — including ones involving the president.
In his 14 years on the federal bench, James “Jeb” Boasberg has resolved secret grand jury disputes that arose during the special counsel investigations into Trump, oversaw improvements after the Trump-Russia investigation in how the Justice Department conducts national security surveillance and handled his share of sentencings for rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
A former homicide prosecutor in the nation’s capital who played basketball at Yale University, where he also earned his law degree, Boasberg has cultivated a reputation among colleagues as a principled jurist with bipartisan respect — he was appointed to the federal bench in 2011 by President Barack Obama but was named a decade earlier to a seat on the D.C. Superior Court by President George W. Bush.
▶ Read more about Judge Boasberg
Federal judge blocks Trump administration from banning transgender people from military service
A federal judge blocked enforcement of Trump’s executive order banning transgender people from military service on Tuesday, the latest in a string of legal setbacks for his sweeping agenda.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes in Washington, D.C., ruled that Trump’s order to exclude transgender troops from military service likely violates their constitutional rights. She was the second judge of the day to rule against the administration, and both rulings came within hours of an extraordinary conflict as Trump called for impeaching a third judge who temporarily blocked deportation flights, drawing a rare rebuke from Chief Justice John Roberts.
Reyes, who was nominated by President Joe Biden, delayed her order until Friday morning to give the administration time to appeal.
Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, posted about the ruling on social media, writing, “District court judges have now decided they are in command of the Armed Forces…is there no end to this madness?”
▶ Read more about the ruling on transgender troops
