The judge who temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order banning transgender individuals from military service has a documented history supporting liberal causes and candidates for office.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes of Washington D.C. last month issued a preliminary injunction halting enforcement of the order, ruling that it violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution by discriminating against transgender people.
“Its language is unabashedly demeaning, its policy stigmatizes transgender persons as inherently unfit, and its conclusions bear no relation to fact,” Reyes wrote. “Indeed, the cruel irony is that thousands of transgender servicemembers have sacrificed – some risking their lives – to ensure for others the very equal protection rights the Military Ban seeks to deny them.”
In a February hearing on the lawsuit challenging Trump’s EO, Reyes said claims that there are only two sexes are “biologically incorrect.”
Reyes was appointed to the federal bench by President Joe Biden in 2022. She was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2023, with only two Republicans, U.S. Sens. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina and Susan Collins of Maine, joining all Democrats to confirm.
Reyes has a history of supporting left-wing causes and political candidates. Since 2008, she has donated more than $38,000 to Democratic causes including ActBlue and Biden’s presidential campaign, according to filings with the Federal Elections Commission. She also donated regularly to the now defunct Democrat super PAC Defeat by Tweet, which says it transferred its resources to Black Church PAC, which supports progressive candidates running for office. She also provided legal assistance to Biden’s presidential campaign as a volunteer.
Reyes previously served on the board of the Feminist Majority Foundation, which in January announced it had signed onto a letter opposing the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act. The legislation would ban biological males from competing in women’s and girls’ sports.
