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Time is running out for the Department of Defense. A judge has signaled that an injunction for the trans military ban is imminent. In response, the military has supercharged efforts to purge transgender personnel by digging through sensitive medical records, the Federal News Network reports. It seems the Trump administration is trying to oust as many people as possible before a judge can successfully force them to stop.

​​“There is a concerted effort to rush and remove remaining trans individuals from service before September 15—in other words, before an injunction and class action can go into place and offer them protection,” said an anonymous source within the Judge Advocate General’s Corps (JAG), an internal organization that defends the Army and its soldiers in military legal matters.

SPARTA Pride, a nonprofit serving transgender service members, is also fielding a ballooning number of reports that the government is using dubious means to identify trans, potentially trans, or intersex service members. Multiple sources documented what they say was a deliberate effort to avoid a written record by issuing orders verbally. One military medical provider said that military officials “demanded a mass review of medical records via verbal order to identify transgender service members.” When the provider asked for the task in writing, the provider said, the military changed course and resorted to “finding other means to identify transgender service members.”

“Those reports also describe verbal directives to avoid written accountability, unprecedented use of military medical systems to identify individuals, pressure on healthcare providers to participate despite serious ethical and privacy concerns, and undue influence on commanders contrary to established policies,” SPARTA’s press statement said.

“It’s worse than ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’” said SPARTA’s executive director, Kara Corcoran, who is an active-duty Army infantry officer who has been issued this kind of separation order. “It’s: ‘Do ask, do tell, and let’s weaponize our systems to hunt them down.’”

A federal court initially issued a preliminary injunction back in 2025, finding it likely unconstitutional, but the Department of Justice has been able to successfully stall further litigation for over a year. Meanwhile, more service members were forced out of their positions. On June 1 of this year, an appellate court upheld that injunction for Talbott v. United States. A judge gave the DOJ 45 days to respond or accept that the injunction would go into effect.

“Many reports reference a 45-day goal to find and separate remaining transgender troops, which suspiciously coincides with a Department of Justice (DOJ) request for a delay of 45 days following the aforementioned court ruling,” SPARTA said in a press release.

“I was just outed by Medical and told that the [Secretary of War] has directed the Surgeon General to digitally comb through all medical records, going above the installation level to bypass typical procedure,” said one transgender Airman in testimony to SPARTA. “There is no other medical condition where they use digital tools at the highest levels to identify people.”

The future of the case is uncertain, but LGBTQ civil rights lawyers appear hopeful. On Aug. 28, the Department of Justice formally filed a petition requesting that the Supreme Court review the case and nip the challenge in the bud—before a judge can hold a trial on whether the ban is constitutional.

GLAD Law’s senior director of transgender and queer rights, Jennifer Levi, told The Advocate the Supreme Court, though conservative, has issued promising rulings in the past where trans troops are concerned.

“We are confident the Supreme Court will affirm that the Trump administration cannot base policies on hostility toward a group of people,” Levi said.

Injunction or not—thousands of people have already been targeted by the ban and removed from their posts because they are transgender.

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