WASHINGTON – In a significant move on Thursday, the Supreme Court granted the Trump administration the authority to enforce a controversial policy that prevents transgender and nonbinary individuals from selecting passport gender markers that reflect their gender identity.

The conservative majority of the Supreme Court sided with the administration, marking a notable victory for President Donald Trump on the court’s emergency docket. This decision allows the administration to implement the policy while ongoing legal challenges continue. It effectively pauses a previous lower court mandate that had required the government to permit passport applicants to choose male, female, or X as gender markers, aligning with their gender identity on new or renewed passports.

This change in passport policy came about following an executive order issued by Trump in January, which stipulated that the United States would recognize only two sexes—male and female—based on birth certificates and “biological classification.”

The impact of this ruling is already being felt. Transgender actor Hunter Schafer highlighted the issue in February when she revealed that her newly issued passport carried a male gender marker, despite her consistent identification as female on her driver’s license and previous passports.

Critics of the policy argue that requiring transgender individuals to use the gender listed on their birth certificates for passports can lead to potential harassment or even violence, underscoring the real-world implications of such legal decisions.

“By classifying people based on sex assigned at birth and exclusively issuing sex markers on passports based on that sex classification, the State Department deprives plaintiffs of a usable identification document and the ability to travel safely,” attorneys wrote in court documents.

Sex markers began appearing on passports in the mid-1970s and the federal government started allowing them to be changed with medical documentation in the early 1990s, the plaintiffs said in court documents. A 2021 change under President Joe Biden, a Democrat, removed documentation requirements and allowed nonbinary people to choose an X gender marker after years of litigation.

A judge blocked the Trump administration policy in June after a lawsuit from nonbinary and transgender people, some of whom said they were afraid to submit applications. An appeals court left the judge’s order in place.

Solicitor General D. John Sauer then turned to the Supreme Court, pointing to its recent ruling upholding a ban on transition-related health care for transgender minors. He also argued Congress gave the president control over passports, which overlap with his authority over foreign affairs.

“It is hard to imagine a system less conducive to accurate identification than one in which anyone can refuse to identify his or her sex and withhold relevant identifying information for any reason, or can rely on a mutable sense of self-identification,” Sauer wrote in court documents.

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