From X to Erased: Supreme Court Lets Trump Cancel Gender-Inclusive Passport Policy

Today, in a 6–3 order, the Supreme Court set aside a lower-court injunction on the Trump administration’s policy reversing a 2021 rule that had allowed applicants to self-select their gender marker on U.S. passports (M, F, or X). While the order does not end the broader legal fight, it lifts the temporary relief that a lower court had put in place to prevent the policy from taking effect at the State Department. The practical impact is immediate: transgender people will be compelled to use sex assigned at birth until what could be years of litigation play out.  

The decision marks another step in the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to restrict or roll back federal recognition and protections for transgender and nonbinary Americans. The Court bought the argument that letting people self-identify constituted an “emergency,” and deferred to the executive branch’s authority over travel-document policy. 

In their dissent, the Court’s liberal justices warned that forcing transgender and nonbinary Americans to carry documents that do not align with their gender identity “deprives individuals of usable identification and the ability to travel safely.” They added that “This Court has once again paved the way for the immediate infliction of injury without adequate (or, really, any) justification.”