The Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration on Thursday to only issue passports indicating biological sex, not “gender identity.”
“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 wrote.
Judge Julia E. Kobick, a Biden appointee in Massachusetts, issued an order in June instructing the government to allow transgender-identifying citizens to choose their own sex designation.
The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to block the injunction in September, arguing that passports are “official government documents, addressed to foreign nations.”
BREAKING: Supreme Court allows Trump admin to stop issuing passports based on “gender identity.”
“Displaying passport holders’ sex at birth no more offends equal protection principles than displaying their country of birth,” the court wrote. pic.twitter.com/4Z8yOQJNHs
Should passports indicate only biological sex instead of gender identity?— Katelynn Richardson (@katesrichardson) November 6, 2025
The lower court’s “grant of class-wide relief enjoins enforcement of an Executive Branch policy with foreign affairs implications concerning a Government document,” the Supreme Court wrote, finding the government likely to ultimately succeed.
Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan dissented.
“Absent an injunction, the plaintiffs and the classes of transgender Americans they represent are forced to make a difficult choice that no other Americans face: use gender-incongruent passports and risk harassment and bodily invasions, on the one hand, or avoid all activities (travel, opening a bank account, renting a car, starting a new job) that may require a passport, on the other,” Jackson wrote. “The harm to these individuals from having to make that choice—before their legal challenges have even been resolved—is palpable.”
President Donald Trump issued a day one executive order on gender ideology, which stated that passports should “accurately reflect the holder’s sex.” Under the Biden administration, the State Department announced that it would allow applicants to choose their own gender and offer passports with an “X” gender designation.
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