A federal judge decided on Friday (18) that the Trump government policy to refuse to issue passports to transgender and non-binary Americans who reflect their gender identities is probably unconstitutional, but refused to block it across the country.
District Judge Julia Kobick in Boston has issued an injunction that suspended policy against six of the seven transgender and non -binary people who filed a lawsuit to contest the policy adopted by the US State Department under the guidance of Republican President Donald Trump.
Kobick stated that the passport policy and a related executive order, signed by Trump, which determined the change, discriminated based on sex and stemmed from an “animus” from transgender Americans who violated the principles of egalitarian protection safeguarded by the fifth amendment of the US Constitution.
“Executive order and passport policy are based on irrational prejudice against transgender Americans and therefore offend our nation’s constitutional commitment to the egalitarian protection of all Americans,” Kobick wrote.
Although Kobick ordered the State Department to allow six plaintiffs to alter their sex designations in their passports or list them as “X,” she said they did not explain why they were entitled to an order that blocking the national policy.
The State Department did not respond to requests for comment. The American Union for Civil Freedoms, which represented the plaintiffs, did not commented immediately.
The case is one of several registered national level related to an executive order signed by Trump after returning to office on January 20, determining that the government recognizes only two biologically distinct sexes: male and female.
The Order also determined that the State Department alter its policies to issue only passports that “accurately reflect the sex of the holder”.
Shortly thereafter, the State Department altered its passport policy to “request the applicant’s biological sex” rather than allowing applicants to self -identify and only be listed as male or female.
Kobick, nominated by Trump’s democratic predecessor Joe Biden, said policy reflected a reversal of more than 30 years of practice in the state department to allow people to update the designation of sex in their passports.
In 2022, the Biden government allowed passport applicants to choose “X” as a neutral sex marker on their passport orders, and could self -record “M” or “F” for male or female.
This content was originally published in a judge states that US passport policy “discriminates against trans” people on CNN Brazil.
Source: CNN Brasil
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