In a sharp turn for transgender rights in America, the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed the Trump administration to move forward with its policy restricting passport sex designations to an individual’s sex assigned at birth — blocking transgender citizens from having their gender identities reflected on the document.
The court’s unsigned order overturned a lower court’s injunction that had frozen the rule, granting the administration a temporary victory while the larger legal battle continues. The decision came through the court’s emergency docket, with its three liberal justices — Ketanji Brown Jackson, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan — dissenting in unison.
Justice Jackson’s dissent painted a grim picture of the policy’s impact, warning that it “permits harm to be inflicted on the most vulnerable.” She noted that denying gender-congruent passports doesn’t merely record a fact of birth, but “invites humiliating scrutiny and the painful reminder of exclusion.”
The ruling marks yet another instance where the nation’s highest court, dominated by a conservative majority, has sided with the Trump administration as it presses ahead with a broad campaign to roll back transgender protections. Since returning to office, Trump has advanced measures restricting recognition of gender identity across multiple federal domains — from the military to healthcare to academic research funding.
The passport directive dismantles decades of practice at the State Department, which since 1992 had allowed changes to sex markers with medical documentation. Under President Biden, those rules were expanded to permit self-identification and introduced an “X” option for nonbinary and intersex individuals.
Earlier this year, a federal judge in Boston found the Trump policy likely unconstitutional, calling it “rooted in irrational prejudice.” That ruling was stayed nationwide — until now.
For those affected, the practical stakes are deeply personal. Transgender Americans seeking to travel abroad say mismatched documents can trigger suspicion, harassment, and even detainment. Their legal filing captured the frustration succinctly: “We seek what every American expects — the freedom to move without fear of being questioned for who we are.”
The Justice Department countered that the government has no obligation to reflect what it called “inaccurate sex designations,” arguing that passports are sovereign instruments of state authority, not personal identity statements.
Thursday’s decision leaves the lower court’s injunction suspended while the case proceeds on appeal, but for many transgender citizens, it has already closed one of the few remaining doors to official recognition.
