A federal judge on Monday largely blocked President Donald Trump's ban on transgender troops.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said in her 76-page ruling that she believes plaintiffs challenging the ban will prevail.

“The court finds that a number of factors – including the sheer breadth of the exclusion ordered by the directives, the unusual circumstances surrounding the president’s announcement of them, the fact that the reasons given for them do not appear to be supported by any facts, and the recent rejection of those reasons by the military itself – strongly suggest that plaintiffs’ Fifth Amendment claim is meritorious,” she wrote.

The lawsuit was the first of three to be filed challenging the ban. The National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and GLBTQ Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) filed the lawsuit on behalf of current and aspiring transgender service members soon after Trump tweeted his decision.

In July, Trump tweeted his call for a complete ban on transgender troops. Roughly a month later, the White House issued guidance on implementing Trump's ban, in which Trump claims that the Obama administration “failed to identity a sufficient basis” to end the military ban – which was rolled back in June, 2016 – and orders the Pentagon to reinstate the policy, arguing that transgender people are a “disruption” to the military.

Kollar-Kotelly cited Trump's unexpected announcement on Twitter as evidence that the transgender ban was more likely driven by animus than military effectiveness.

“[T]he president abruptly announced, via Twitter – without any of the formality or deliberative processes that generally accompany the development and announcement of major policy changes that will gravely affect the lives of many Americans – that all transgender individuals would be precluded from participating in the military in any capacity,” she wrote. “These circumstances provide additional support for plaintiffs’ claim that the decision to exclude transgender individuals was not driven by genuine concerns regarding military efficacy.”

Kollar-Kotelly's order leaves in place the portion of the ban that calls on the military to stop paying for sex reassignment surgeries.

The judge wrote that “none of the plaintiffs have demonstrated an injury in fact with respect to the sex reassignment surgery directive” and that “the risk of being impacted by the sex reassignment surgery directive is not sufficiently great to confer standing.”