a federal judge gave pete hegseth ten homework questions about trans troops. show your work, pete.

Photo: U.S. Department of Defense, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

via The Washington Sun and the court docket

Government lawyers did not want Pete Hegseth sitting for a deposition about trans troops. Judge Ana Reyes had an answer for that.

"I'm very aware that he is the secretary of defense and he has a lot of constraints on his time," she said at a hearing in Washington on Wednesday, according to The Washington Sun. "But he has time to tweet and put out videos and speak to generals, and I think it's fair game."

what the judge ordered

The case is Talbott v. Trump, the class action challenging the military's ban on transgender service members. Reyes's written order, entered the same day, calls it "a less intrusive alternative to deposing Secretary Hegseth." The plaintiffs send ten written questions by 10 a.m. on Oct. 19. The defendants answer with "verified answers" by Nov. 2. Any fight over the questions has to reach the court by Nov. 5. The docket has a two-week bench trial starting Jan. 4, 2027.

The point of the questions, the Sun reports, is whether the ban rests on "personal animus." Reyes warned she would not accept "very carefully tailored lawyerly responses that would say nothing," and said that if it came to it, she would be "happy to monitor the deposition." The Sun reports she could still order a one-hour deposition under oath.

his own words, as evidence

The plaintiffs argue the ban is driven by hostility toward trans people, not readiness. Hegseth has been generous with evidence. The Sun lists his May 2025 post, "TRANS is out at the DOD," a slur at the Iowa State Fair in August, and the "no beardos" speech we wrote about in full. In court, Reyes listed them herself: "Secretary Hegseth issues a tweet," she said, before repeating a slur she attributed to him, which we are not printing.

She also pointed at a contradiction we wrote about in July: the department says gender-related medical care threatens readiness while also planning to test troops' testosterone and offer replacement therapy to boost it.

Reyes is the judge who wrote in 2025 that the ban "is soaked in animus and dripping with pretext," the Sun notes, before the Supreme Court let it take effect while the case continues. So: ten questions, due back Nov. 2, verified. We hope he's as quick with these as he is with a post.