2LT International News

WASHINGTON, D.C.: The U.S. Supreme Court on November 6 allowed the Trump administration to enforce a policy preventing transgender and nonbinary Americans from selecting passport gender markers that match their gender identity.

The ruling is another win for Trump on the court’s emergency docket, permitting the policy to continue while a legal challenge moves forward. It pauses a lower-court order requiring the government to continue offering “M,” “F,” or “X” markers that align with applicants’ gender identity. The court’s three liberal justices dissented.

Since Trump began his second term, the conservative-majority court has granted the administration nearly two dozen temporary requests on various policies, including one backing a ban on transgender military service.

In a short, unsigned order, the court said the passport rule does not violate equal protection, arguing that listing a person’s sex assigned at birth is merely a historical fact, akin to listing the country of birth.

The liberal justices pushed back, saying the policy puts transgender people at greater risk of harassment, discrimination, and violence. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote that the decision enables “immediate infliction of injury,” noting the policy stems from Trump’s executive order describing transgender identity as “false” and “corrosive.” She pointed to reports from plaintiffs describing assaults, invasive searches, and accusations of fraud at airport checkpoints because their documents didn’t match their appearance.

The majority said the government is harmed when it cannot enforce the policy because passports fall under foreign affairs, a core executive responsibility. The dissent argued there’s no clear link between individual passport markers and national foreign policy.

The State Department changed its rules after Trump issued his January executive order directing the government to recognize only male and female sex categories based on birth certificates and “biological classification.” Some transgender people, including actor Hunter Schafer, have recently received passports listing the wrong gender despite having long had accurate documentation.

Plaintiffs argue the policy makes passports inaccurate and unsafe for anyone whose gender expression doesn’t match the marker. “Forcing transgender people to carry passports that out them against their will increases the risk of harassment and violence,” said Jon Davidson of the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project.

Gender markers were first added to passports in the mid-1970s, and the government began allowing changes with medical documentation in the early 1990s. A Biden-era policy in 2021 removed medical requirements and introduced an “X” option after years of advocacy.

A federal judge had blocked Trump’s rule in June, and an appeals court kept that pause in place. Solicitor General D. John Sauer then appealed to the Supreme Court, citing its recent decision upholding restrictions on transition care for minors and calling the Biden policy inaccurate.

White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly praised the decision as a victory against “woke gender ideology,” while Attorney General Pam Bondi said the administration would continue to defend the view that there are only two sexes.