By Matthew Vadum
The U.S. Supreme Court on Nov. 6 allowed the Trump administration to enforce its policy requiring the sex designation on a U.S. passport to be consistent with the passport holder’s sex at birth.
The court’s decision in Trump v. Orr took the form of an unsigned order without comment.
Three justices—Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor—dissented from the new ruling.
“Displaying passport holders’ sex at birth no more offends equal protection principles than displaying their country of birth—in both cases, the government is merely attesting to a historical fact without subjecting anyone to differential treatment,” the court’s order states.
The order temporarily stays a June 17 order by the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, which is now under appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.
Opponents of the policy had argued that it was unconstitutional.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
