Washington DC - Donald Trump's administration on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to permit the president's ban on transgender troops serving in the military to take effect while legal challenges play out.

A US judge issued a temporary injunction last month blocking the implementation of the ban, and an appeals court subsequently denied the government's request to stay the lower court's order.

"In this case, the district court issued a universal injunction usurping the Executive Branch's authority to determine who may serve in the nation's armed forces," Trump's Justice Department said in an application for a stay by the top court.

The Supreme Court "should stay the district court's injunction in its entirety. At minimum, this Court should stay the injunction except as to the eight individual respondents in this case," it said.

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In a January 27 executive order, Trump stated that "expressing a false 'gender identity' divergent from an individual's sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service."

The Pentagon followed that up with a memo issued in late February stating that it would remove transgender troops from the military unless they obtain a waiver on a case-by-case basis, as well as prevent others from joining.

If the ban were to go into effect, it could affect thousands of currently serving troops.

The restrictions in the Pentagon memo are aimed at those who have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria – of whom there were 4,240 serving in the military as of late last year, according to a senior defense official – as well as those who have a history of the condition or exhibit symptoms of it.