Supreme Court Rules on Transgender Passport Policy
On Thursday, the Supreme Court decided that President Trump’s State Department may temporarily prevent transgender Americans from having their gender identity noted on their passports.
This decision represents another legal win for Trump as he works to diminish what his administration terms “gender ideology.” Following a lower court’s decision that obstructed a passport policy seen as driven by “unreasonable prejudice,” the Justice Department responded with an emergency appeal.
The majority opinion stated, “Indicating a passport holder’s gender at birth does not violate the equal protection principle any more than indicating the country of birth. In both cases, the government is simply establishing a historical fact that no one is subject to discriminatory treatment.” It’s worth noting that the judgment was not signed.
The ruling aligns with the court’s 6-3 ideological split, although justices aren’t obligated to publicly disclose their votes.
The liberal justices voiced their dissent, describing the ruling as a “senseless but painful perversion.” Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, remarked, “This reckless avoidance of clearly fair outcomes has become an unfortunate pattern.”
Jackson further stated, “I myself refuse to turn a blind eye when fundamental principles are selectively discarded.”
Attorney General D. John Sauer criticized the lower court’s blocking of the administration’s policies as “untenable,” arguing it infringed on President Trump’s constitutional powers regarding foreign affairs.
“The President’s choice to revert to previous policy and focus on biological sex should bind the Department, and should not be the starting point for new equal protection claims or Administrative Procedure Act challenges,” Sauer noted in court documents.
Under the State Department’s policy, passport holders must designate their gender based on their sex assigned at birth, effectively barring transgender individuals from aligning their gender with their identity. Additionally, the policy has eliminated the option for individuals to select “X,” restricting choices to male or female only.
Chase Strangio, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), warned that this new policy places transgender, nonbinary, and intersex individuals at risk each time they use their passports.
Strangio and the ACLU are representing transgender and non-binary Americans in a lawsuit challenging the changes made by the State Department.
They contended that these alterations violated federal law and the Constitution’s equal protection clause, which had persuaded both a Biden-appointed federal district judge and later judges to rule in their favor. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Circuit sought to block this policy.
This case is the latest to reach the Supreme Court, coinciding with day one of Trump’s executive order targeting what he deems “gender ideology.” Previously, courts had issued emergency orders that permitted the government to enforce a ban on transgender service members and to eliminate diversity-related health benefits.
