The judge reigns against the Trump administration on passport changes

On Friday, a Federal Judge of Boston ordered the Trump administration to issue passports which reflect the self-identified sex of six transgender people rather than demanding that passports display sex on the original birth certificates of the applicants.

The ordinance of judge Julia E. Kobick was a victory, at least temporarily, for the six complainants, who, according to her, were to prevail over their assertion according to which a new policy of the Trump administration is equivalent to a form of unconstitutional sex discrimination under the fifth amendment, as well as the law on administrative procedures. The State Department adopted the new policy earlier this year to comply with a decree of President Trump ordering all government agencies to limit the official recognition of transgender identity.

“The complainants were personally disadvantaged by the government – they can no longer obtain a passport in accordance with their gender identity – because of their gender attributed to birth,” wrote Judge Kobick, who was appointed by former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. “Passport policy indeed imposes a special disadvantage on fishing due to their sex and court.

Friday, the judge’s order only applies six transgender complainants who were looking for new passports and had continued the Trump administration. The order does not apply to a seventh applicant, who already has a passport, valid until 2028, with the sexual marker which corresponds to his gender identity. The order, which will remain in place, because the case is advancing, does not accept the government of the new passport requirement for other transgender persons.

In court documents, the complainants pursuing the government argued that a gap between the sex listed on their passport and the way they think of themselves and are perceived in danger of suspicion and hostility to which other Americans are not confronted. During the first weeks of Mr. Trump’s administration, two applicants received passports with a “F” or “M” marker who was contrary to what they had asked. Another applicant learned that the selection of a “X” marker, indicating a non -binary gender identity, was no longer an option in the request process, although it has been authorized since 2022.

The restrictions on passports are part of a wide effort of the Trump administration to minimize the role of gender identity in the way in which the American company is organized. In the first of a series of decrees on transgender issues, Trump characterized people whose sex does not correspond to sex on their birth certificate as “making a false complaint”. Gender identity, according to the prescription, is not “a replacement of sex” and “does not provide a significant basis for identification”.