WASHINGTON (AP) — supreme court On Thursday, President Donald Trump’s administration authorized the implementation of policies that prevent transgender and nonbinary people from making choices. passport sex marker One that is consistent with one’s gender identity.
The ruling by the conservative-majority court is President Trump’s latest victory over the high court’s emergency filings and means his administration can enforce the policy while litigation over the policy proceeds. This halts a lower court order that asked the government to continue allowing people to choose male, female or X on their passports to match their gender identity on new or renewed passports. The court’s three liberal justices dissented.
In a short, unsigned order, the court said the policy did not appear to discriminate against transgender people. “Indicating a passport holder’s sex at birth does not violate the equal protection principle any more than indicating the country of birth,” the report said. “In both cases, the government is simply testifying to historical facts without discriminatory treatment of anyone.”
The court’s three liberal justices disagreed, writing in a dissent that transgender people are vulnerable to “increased violence, harassment, and discrimination” because passports list only their sex at birth.
“This court has paved the way for yet another instant injury without proper (in fact, any) justification,” Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote, noting that the policy stems directly from President Trump’s executive order that described transgender identity as “false” and “corrosive.”
The State Department changed the passport rules after Republican President Trump issued an executive order in January declaring that the two genders, male and female, are recognized based on birth certificates and “biological classification.”
transgender actor hunter shaferFor example, she said in February that her new passport was issued with a male gender mark, even though her driver’s license and passport have listed her as female for years.
Plaintiffs argue that passports limited to the gender listed on a birth certificate could lead to harassment and even violence against transgender people.
“By classifying people based on the sex they were assigned at birth and exclusively issuing gender markers on passports based on that gender classification, the State Department is depriving Plaintiffs of a usable identification document and the ability to travel safely,” the attorneys said in court documents.
Gender markings began appearing on passports in the mid-1970s, and the federal government began allowing medical document changes in the early 1990s, the plaintiffs said in court documents. After years of litigation, a 2021 amendment under Democratic President Joe Biden removed documentation requirements and allowed nonbinary people to choose an X gender marker.
judge blocked the Trump administration’s policies In June, it followed a lawsuit from non-binary and transgender people, some of whom complained they were afraid to submit their applications. The appeals court left the judge’s order in place.
Attorney General D. John Sauer then consulted the Supreme Court, noting that the Supreme Court had upheld a recent decision. Prohibition of transition-related medical care For transgender minors. He also argued that Congress gave the president control over passports, which overlaps with the president’s authority over foreign affairs.
“It is hard to imagine a system less conducive to accurate identification than one in which anyone can refuse to identify their gender and withhold relevant personal information for any reason, or one in which one can rely on variable self-identification,” Sauer wrote in court papers.
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