Overview

• The Justice Department filed an emergency application asking the Supreme Court to reinstate the Trump policy requiring passports to reflect sex assigned at birth and to end the non-binary “X” marker.
• A federal district judge, Julia Kobick, previously issued a nationwide injunction blocking the policy and allowing applicants to select their preferred gender marker, including X.
• The Boston-based appeals court declined to pause that injunction earlier this month, leaving the Biden-era option in place while litigation proceeds.
• Trump’s January order directs federal documents to recognize only male or female based on birth records, and the State Department had halted processing X-marker passport requests before the court block.
• The administration argues sex assigned at birth is a more reliable, immutable identifier than gender identity, and a Supreme Court ruling could swiftly remove the X option and require birth-designated sex on passports.