Supreme Court Upholds Trump Rule Requiring Passports to List Biological Sex

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the Trump administration can enforce a policy requiring the sex designation on U.S. passports to match a traveler’s biological sex — a decision viewed as a major setback for transgender and nonbinary Americans.

The unsigned order represents another victory for President Donald Trump on the court’s emergency docket and another blow to LGBTQ rights. “Displaying passport holders’ sex at birth no more offends equal protection principles than displaying their country of birth,” the court wrote.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, joined by the court’s other liberal justices, issued a sharp dissent, saying the ruling ignored fundamental fairness. “This court has once again paved the way for the immediate infliction of injury without adequate (or, really, any) justification,” she wrote.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which challenged the policy, called the ruling “a heartbreaking setback for the freedom of all people to be themselves.” ACLU attorney Jon Davidson said forcing transgender people to carry passports that “out them” puts them at risk of harassment and violence.

U.S. passports have included sex markers since 1976. A 1992 State Department rule allowed applicants to change their marker with medical documentation, and in 2021, the Biden administration introduced an “X” option for nonbinary and intersex Americans. Trump reversed both policies this year, eliminating the “X” designation and requiring that passports list sex assigned at birth.

A lower court had blocked enforcement nationwide, but the Supreme Court lifted that order Thursday, allowing the policy to take effect while litigation continues. The Trump administration argued the rule “applies equally to all Americans” and defines sex biologically, not by self-identification.

Attorney General Pam Bondi praised the decision on social media, writing: “Today’s stay allows the government to require citizens to list their biological sex on their passport. In other words: there are two sexes, and our attorneys will continue fighting for that simple truth.”

White House spokesperson Anna Kelly called the ruling “a victory for common sense and President Trump,” saying it supports his mission to “eliminate woke gender ideology from the federal government.”

This is the second time in recent months the conservative-leaning Supreme Court has allowed Trump’s administration to enforce a policy affecting transgender Americans, following its earlier approval of a military service ban.

Credit: CNN Newsource

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