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Trans Americans lose passport freedom as the US Supreme Court backs Trump policy
This order halts a lower-court order requiring the government to continue allowing people to choose 'male,' 'female,' or 'X' on their passports.
The US Supreme Court on Thursday gave a nod to the US government to enforce a policy that blocks transgender and nonbinary Americans from selecting passport sex markers that align with their gender identity, a major win for the Trump administration.
In a 6–3 decision by its conservative majority, the Court ruled that the administration can move forward with the restriction while a lawsuit challenging the policy continues in a lower court, Reuters reported.
The Supreme Court's latest move halts a lower-court order requiring the government to continue allowing people to choose 'male,' 'female,' or 'X' on their passports, aligning with their gender identity on new or renewed passports.
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The order comes after the US State Department requested to lift a judge's order that had blocked the policy requiring passports to correspond only to a person's sex assigned at birth.
The Trump-era policy stems from an executive order issued in January, declaring that the United States would "recognise only two sexes, male and female," determined by birth certificates and "biological classification."
The State Department subsequently revised its passport rules to align with that directive, eliminating recognition for gender identity beyond the binary framework.
What SC’s order means for gender rights in the US
The administration's policy reverses decades of practice at the US State Department, which since 1992 had permitted passport sex designations to differ from sex assigned at birth with medical documentation.
Under Democratic President Joe Biden, the State Department in 2021 allowed passport applicants to self-select a male or female sex marker without such documentation, and added a third option "X" for nonbinary, intersex and gender non-conforming applicants.
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Boston-based US District Judge Julia Kobick in April found that the Trump administration policy likely discriminates based on sex and is rooted in "irrational prejudice" toward transgender Americans in violation of their equal protection rights under the US Constitution's Fifth Amendment.
Part of Trump's broader anti-trans agenda
Ever since his return to the White House, Trump has targeted the rights of transgender people in a series of executive orders since returning to the presidency in January, including one stating that the US government will recognise only two sexes, male and female. Trump has cast the gender identity of transgender people as a lie.
The ruling also underscores how the Supreme Court's conservative majority has continued to deliver high-profile victories to Trump's agenda through its emergency hearings.
The court in May allowed the administration to implement Trump's ban on transgender people in the military. Pentagon Chief Pete Hegseth subsequently referred to transgender people as "dudes in dresses."
In August, the court let the administration make sweeping cuts to National Institutes of Health grants, including for research related to LGBT people.
