Trump asks Supreme Court for emergency ruling on transgender passports

The Trump administration petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday to overturn a lower court ruling that would allow people who identify as transgender or nonbinary to claim any sex on their passports. President Donald Trump in January issued an executive order declaring the federal government would only recognize one’s biological sex at birth, either male or female. The order overturned a previous Biden-era policy that allowed passport applicants to choose either sex designation at will and offered a third sex designation of “X.”

Plaintiffs out of Massachusetts filed a lawsuit challenging Trump’s order, prompting a U.S. District Court judge to bar the State Department from enforcing it. The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this month declined to pause the district judge’s ruling as litigation continues.

What argument are government attorneys making to the high court? U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer’s filing argued that the lower court injunction had no legal or logical basis. Private citizens can’t force the government to use inaccurate sex designations, especially not on federal identification documents, he wrote. Sauer also pushed back on the plaintiffs’ discrimination claims, citing the Supreme Court’s recent decision in United States v. Skrmetti. That ruling made clear that policies are not discriminatory if they are applied equally to both sexes, Sauer noted. The Trump administration’s policy, he said, applies equally and defines sex for all applicants on a biological basis rather than self-identification. 

Dig deeper: Read my recent report on SCOTUS allowing Trump to continue immigration raids in Los Angeles and fire Democratic FTC commissioner Rebecca Slaughter.