Overview
- A three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied the administration’s request to stay a district-court injunction against enforcing the passport rule.
- Judges said the government failed to engage with the lower court’s analysis, which found likely unconstitutional animus and arbitrary agency action.
- U.S. District Judge Julia E. Kobick previously expanded the injunction from a handful of plaintiffs to a nationwide class of transgender, nonbinary, and intersex applicants.
- The courts cited uncontroverted evidence of immediate harms, including heightened risks of harassment and violence for travelers forced to carry mismatched IDs.
- The State Department remains barred from enforcing the binary-only policy as litigation continues, and the White House later criticized the decision.