Biden-appointed U.S. Judge Julia Kobick issued a ruling Tuesday to temporarily block the Trump administration’s move to only allow two genders, male and female, on U.S. passports. This decision extends her previous ruling, which was issued in April and applied to six plaintiffs who sued the administration for the policy. Kobick, a federal judge for the U.S. District of Massachusetts, found that the Trump administration’s policy is likely to succeed because it discriminates on the basis of sex and is rooted in irrational prejudice toward transgender Americans.
Under the Trump administration’s policy, the Department of State eliminated the ‘X’ designation on passport applications and suspended a policy allowing people to identify as the opposite sex or as intersex or nonbinary. This move was widely reported as targeting transgender individuals, who face significant challenges in their daily lives when forced to present documentation that does not align with their gender identity. Kobick stated that the policy would cause transgender individuals to experience anxiety and psychological distress or fear for their safety if they were required to travel with passports bearing a sex designation corresponding to their sex assigned at birth.
Trump’s order, titled