Overview
- The Court granted the Justice Department's request to suspend lower-court injunctions, allowing enforcement of the policy requiring passports to list sex assigned at birth.
- The ruling halts relief previously ordered by U.S. District Judge Julia Kobick, who had allowed several transgender and non-binary applicants to receive identity-reflective or 'X' markers and called the policy irrational prejudice.
- Under the reinstated rule, passports may list only male or female based on birth records, and the State Department had already paused issuing 'X' markers earlier this year.
- The decision was 6–3, with language asserting the government is attesting to a historical fact rather than imposing unequal treatment.
- Brazilian federal deputy Erika Hilton challenged a U.S. diplomatic visa issued with a male designation in complaints to the U.N. and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, as the U.S. Embassy in Brazil cited Executive Order 14168 and confidentiality rules.