U.S. District Judge Julia Sobick in Massachusetts has ordered the State Department to issue passports to six transgender and nonbinary individuals. At the same time, litigation continues challenging President Donald Trump’s policy recognizing people only by their sex assigned at birth.
Trump’s order, signed on his first day back in office, January 20, directed the government to recognize only two sexes: male and female. The State Department changed its policies to issue passports that “accurately reflect the holder’s sex” assigned at birth, as directed in Trump’s order.
For 30 years, the State Department allowed people to put X for gender.
The judge claims the policy is “arbitrary and capricious” under the Fifth Amendment. Sobick also found the plaintiffs would suffer irreparable harm if they couldn’t obtain passports under their self-designated sex while the case works its way through the courts.
She claims they will win because it’s probably unconstitutional.
“The plaintiffs have also demonstrated a likelihood of success on their separate argument that, under any standard of review, the Executive Order and Passport Policy are based on irrational prejudice toward transgender Americans and therefore offend our Nation’s constitutional commitment to equal protection for all Americans,” Sobick wrote.
But Sobick didn’t block the Trump administration’s passport policy nationwide.
As usual, the un-American ACLU took up the case.
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