The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday to allow the Trump administration to require the sex designation on passports to align with the traveler’s biological sex.
“Displaying passport holders’ sex at birth no more offends equal protection principles than displaying their country of birth — in both cases, the Government is merely attesting to a historical fact without subjecting anyone to differential treatment,” the court said in an unsigned order.
“And on this record, respondents have failed to establish that the Government’s choice to display biological sex ‘lack[s] any purpose other than a bare … desire to harm a politically unpopular group,’” the justices added.
The 6-3 decision overruled lower courts’ injunctions, which blocked the Trump administration from going forward with its policies.
BREAKING: The Supreme Court ALLOWS the Trump administration to refuse to issue passports to transgender and nonbinary individuals that reflect their gender identity amid a legal challenge of the policy change. Liberal #SCOTUS justices dissent. https://t.co/JdfZ7Rb9RO pic.twitter.com/0SSLhYLTN0
— Katie Buehler (@bykatiebuehler) November 6, 2025
In a dissent, liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote, “Such senseless sidestepping of the obvious equitable outcome has become an unfortunate pattern.
“So, too, has my own refusal to look the other way when basic principles are selectively discarded,” she added. “This Court has once again paved the way for the immediate infliction of injury without adequate (or, really, any) justification.
“Because I cannot acquiesce to this pointless but painful perversion of our equitable discretion, I respectfully dissent,” Jackson said.
Should gender ideology be banned from use on all government documents?
CNN reported, “US passports first carried sex markers in 1976, but the State Department in 1992 allowed citizens to choose a marker opposite from their sex assigned at birth if they submitted certain medical documentation. Then, in 2021, President Joe Biden’s administration allowed people to select ‘X’ sex markers on their passports.”
After President Donald Trump took office, he reversed both policies, directing passports to reflect a person’s biological sex.
Attorney General Pam Bondi celebrated Thursday’s ruling, posting on social media, “Attorneys at @TheJusticeDept just secured our 24th victory at the Supreme Court’s emergency docket. Today’s stay allows the government to require citizens to list their biological sex on their passport. In other words: there are two sexes, and our attorneys will continue fighting for that simple truth.”
Attorneys at @TheJusticeDept just secured our 24th victory at the Supreme Court’s emergency docket.
Today’s stay allows the government to require citizens to list their biological sex on their passport.
In other words: there are two sexes, and our attorneys will continue…
— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) November 6, 2025
CNN reported that in May, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to begin immediately enforcing a ban on transgender service members in the military.
The outlet noted, “Neither decision is the final word on the legal cases at issue, only a short-term determination about what will happen while those cases continue to play out” in lower courts.
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