Overview
- The court, in an unsigned 6-3 ruling, stayed a nationwide injunction, allowing the State Department to apply the birth‑sex listing policy while appeals proceed.
- The policy reverses Biden-era rules that permitted self-attestation of sex markers and offered an 'X' option for nonbinary applicants.
- U.S. District Judge Julia Kobick had earlier found the policy likely discriminatory under the Fifth Amendment and the Administrative Procedure Act and had blocked it nationwide.
- Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued the rule is lawful because passports are executive communications tied to foreign affairs and may define sex biologically.
- Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, warning of imminent harm to transgender, nonbinary, and intersex travelers, as the class-action led by plaintiff Ashton Orr continues in lower courts.