(Washington) The Supreme Court on Thursday authorized President Donald Trump’s administration to implement a policy prohibiting transgender and non-binary people from choosing a sex designation on their passport that corresponds to their gender identity.
The decision marks the latest victory for the Trump camp before the Supreme Court in the context of emergency procedures and allows his administration to apply this policy during the outcome of a legal action.
It suspends a lower court ruling requiring the government to continue allowing people to choose “man”, “woman” or “X” on their passport, to match their gender identity, for new or renewal passports. The Court’s three progressive justices voted against it.
Since the start of Donald Trump’s second term, the high court has sided with the government in nearly two dozen interim orders on various policies, including another case banning transgender people from serving in the military.
In a brief, unsigned order, the court, with a conservative majority, said the policy was not discriminatory. “Displaying the sex at birth of passport holders does not contravene the principles of equal protection any more than displaying their country of birth,” she said. In both cases, the government is only noting a historical fact without subjecting anyone to differential treatment. »
The Supreme Court’s three progressive justices disagreed, saying in a dissenting opinion that these passports make transgender people vulnerable to “increased violence, harassment and discrimination.”
“This Court has once again opened the door to immediate harm without adequate (if any) justification,” wrote Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, noting that this policy was a direct result of Donald Trump’s executive order calling transgender identity “false” and “corrosive.”
Transgender and non-binary people who have filed complaints against the policy have reported being sexually assaulted, subjected to strip searches and accused of presenting false documents during airport security checks, she added.
The Supreme Court majority said failure to enforce the policy harms the government because passports fall under foreign affairs, an area of executive authority.
The dissenting judges, meanwhile, emphasized that the precise impact of individual identity documents on the country’s foreign policy is not clearly established. The State Department changed its passport rules after Donald Trump signed an executive order in January declaring that the United States would “recognize two sexes, male and female,” based on birth certificates and “biological classification.”
Transgender actress Hunter Schafer, for example, said in February that her new passport had “male” written on it, even though she has been listed as female on her driver’s license and passport for years.
The plaintiffs say these passports are inaccurate and can be dangerous for people whose gender expression does not match what is on the documents.
“Forcing transgender people to carry passports that reveal their gender identity against their will increases their risk of harassment and violence,” said Jon Davidson, senior advisor to the ACLU’s LGBTQ and HIV Project.
“This is a heartbreaking setback for everyone’s freedom to be themselves and a trigger for the Trump administration’s policy of discrimination against transgender people and their constitutional rights. »
Gender designations began appearing on passports in the mid-1970s, and the federal government allowed them to be changed upon presentation of medical documents in the early 1990s, the plaintiffs said in court papers. A 2021 change under President Joe Biden removed the documentation requirement and allowed non-binary people to choose “X” as their gender designation after years of processing.
A judge blocked the Trump administration’s policy in June following a lawsuit brought by nonbinary and transgender people, some of whom said they were afraid to file. An appeals court upheld the judge’s decision.
Attorney General D. John Sauer then turned to the Supreme Court, pointing to its recent ruling upholding the ban on transition-related health care for transgender minors and calling the Biden-era policy inaccurate.
