Overview

• On June 17, U.S. District Judge Julia Kobick expanded her prior April injunction to block the Trump administration’s January executive order requiring passports to reflect only biological sex markers.
• The ruling grants class action status and covers all transgender, nonbinary and intersex individuals seeking new passports, renewals or changes to gender markers and names.
• Kobick ruled that the policy likely violates the constitutional guarantee of equal protection by discriminating on the basis of sex and exposing applicants to stigma and safety risks.
• Under the injunction, the State Department must resume issuing passports with self-selected gender markers—‘M’, ‘F’ or ‘X’—pending the outcome of the lawsuit.
• The Justice Department has appealed Kobick’s initial injunction, setting the stage for higher courts to determine the policy’s lasting legal status.