Overview
- By a 6-3 vote, the justices issued an unsigned order allowing enforcement, with Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan dissenting.
- The ruling pauses a nationwide injunction from U.S. District Judge Julia Kobick that the 1st Circuit had left in place.
- The State Department rule requires passports to reflect sex assigned at birth and removes the nonbinary ‘X’ option, reversing the Biden-era 2021 policy.
- The administration argues passports are government communications tied to foreign affairs and cannot be compelled to reflect self-identification, while plaintiffs press equal-protection and APA claims and cite safety and identification harms.
- The case proceeds as a class action in lower courts, and the Supreme Court’s order does not resolve the merits.