Overview
- The ruling allows the State Department to require passport sex designations to match sex assigned at birth and eliminates the nonbinary “X” marker for now.
- The Court’s conservative majority said listing birth sex “no more offends” equal-protection principles than listing country of birth, framing it as certifying a historical fact.
- Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, warning of immediate, unjustified harms to transgender people.
- The decision suspends a nationwide injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Julia Kobick, after an appeals panel declined to grant the government a stay.
- The Justice Department argued the policy applies equally by defining sex biologically rather than by self-identification, while the ACLU and plaintiffs say it endangers trans and nonbinary travelers.