The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday allowed President Donald Trump’s administration to enforce a policy preventing transgender and nonbinary Americans from selecting passport gender markers that align with their gender identity.
In an unsigned order, the justices granted an emergency request from the administration, reinstating rules that require passports to list sex assigned at birth. The decision halts the Biden-era policy that introduced an “X” option in 2021 and permitted applicants to self-select male or female markers without medical documentation.
“Displaying passport holders’ sex at birth no more offends equal protection principles than displaying their country of birth,” the court’s order stated. “In both cases, the Government is merely attesting to a historical fact without subjecting anyone to differential treatment.”
The three liberal justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan dissented. Writing for the minority, Justice Jackson said the administration “offers no evidence that it will suffer any harm if it is temporarily enjoined,” while affected individuals “will be subject to imminent, concrete injury if the policy goes into effect.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi praised the ruling, saying it affirmed the administration’s position that “there are two sexes” and that the Justice Department “will continue fighting for that simple truth.”
The policy change, announced by Trump on his first day in office, requires all passports to reflect sex assigned at birth. Transgender applicants, even those who have undergone medical transition will no longer be able to obtain identification documents that correspond to their gender identity.
Civil rights advocates condemned the ruling. Jon Davidson, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union representing the plaintiffs, called it “a heartbreaking setback for the freedom of all people to be themselves” and “fuel on the fire the Trump administration is stoking against transgender Americans.”
The case was brought by Ashton Orr, a transgender man from West Virginia, who was denied a male marker earlier this year. A federal judge in Massachusetts had previously ruled against the administration, with the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declining to pause that ruling a decision now effectively overridden by the Supreme Court.
The order clears the way for the State Department to immediately resume enforcing the birth-sex-only policy while litigation continues.
