Well, here we go again—another Biden-appointed judge inserting herself into Pentagon policy and demanding that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth retract a social media post about the military’s new transgender policy. That’s right, Judge Ana Reyes, a 2023 Biden pick for the U.S. District Court in D.C., apparently thinks she has the authority to police the Defense Secretary’s speech on X—all because she didn’t like the way he phrased the administration’s stance.
Reyes, who made headlines earlier for claiming that the existence of only two biological sexes is “not biologically correct,” took issue with Hegseth’s straightforward post about the Pentagon’s new approach to transgender service members. During a Wednesday hearing, she ordered him to take it down by Monday, arguing that his statement was misleading about the actual policy.
This, by the way, is the same judge currently under fire for allegedly exhibiting “hostile and egregious misconduct” in a case against the DOJ, after she questioned a government lawyer’s religious beliefs in a way that the Justice Department itself admitted “compromised the dignity of the proceedings and demonstrated potential bias.” But now, she wants to take on the Pentagon, too.
“Pentagon says transgender troops are disqualified from service without an exemption” https://t.co/VGa16iZKqf
— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) February 27, 2025
Let’s talk about what’s actually happening here.
President Trump, through an executive order issued on January 27, directed the Department of Defense to “update trans-identifying medical standards for military service” and to “rescind guidance inconsistent with military readiness.” The policy, which was updated under Defense Secretary Hegseth, does not outright ban transgender individuals from serving, but it does restrict service to those who meet the same strict medical and physical standards required of all troops. Exceptions can be made on a case-by-case basis through a waiver process.
But that wasn’t enough for the activist groups, who immediately sued, claiming the policy violates equal protection under the Fifth Amendment. And now, Judge Reyes is not only hearing the case—she’s making it personal by targeting Hegseth over a post that the DOJ’s own lawyers say was just “shorthand.”
Fox reported on this exchange, though it doesn’t mention the disparaging remarks about Pete Hegseth’s military service. pic.twitter.com/EzbYsuctpF
— Laura Powell (@LauraPowellEsq) March 12, 2025
Her response? “Do you really think you can do that, say one thing in public and then come here to court and say something else entirely?” she snapped at the government attorneys. “His words are that this covers all transgender people. I’m not going to speculate that he was just being sloppy.”
Now, let’s be real: This isn’t about “clarifying” policy. This is about a judge trying to dictate Pentagon messaging and, by extension, undermine the authority of the Trump administration to set military policy as it sees fit. If the commander-in-chief directs a policy change, and the Defense Secretary carries it out, that’s how the chain of command works—not through judicial activism in a Washington courtroom.
