Supreme Court allows Trump administration to require gender at birth on passports

'A huge win for the president and for common sense'

On Thursday (November 6), the conservative-majority Court froze a lower court order in Massachusetts that had blocked the government from implementing the rule while the legal process continued, according to the BBC.

The decision allows the Trump administration’s policy to take effect for now, even as legal challenges continue in the lower courts.

The unsigned order stated that displaying passport holders’ sex at birth “no more offends equal protection principles than displaying their country of birth.”

Previously, the Biden administration had allowed people to self-select their gender on passports, including a third option 'X'.

In a recent decision on its emergency docket, the Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration, effectively halting the ability of individuals to list their chosen identity on future or renewed passports.

The unsigned order states that the government is "merely attesting to a historical fact without subjecting anyone to differential treatment," per The BBC.

The Supreme Court further said that the administration "is likely to succeed on the merits", pointing toward an inclination to issue a final ruling that would uphold the requirement when the case formally reaches them.

The three liberal justices dissented.

The plaintiffs in the case include transgender activist Ash Lazarus Orr, four other transgender Americans and two nonbinary individuals.

They argue that the limitations in the gender field have amounted to harassment and could lead to violence against transgender individuals.

Even though the internal policy changes were already in motion earlier in 2025, the Court’s decision makes the policy enforceable while litigation continues.

In dissenting on Thursday, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson accused the Supreme Court's six conservative justices of "senseless sidestepping of the obvious equitable outcome," claiming it had become an "unfortunate pattern", per The BBC.

"This Court has once again paved the way for the immediate infliction of injury without adequate (or, really, any) justification," she wrote. "Because I cannot acquiesce to this pointless but painful perversion of our equitable discretion, I respectfully dissent".

Trump's top prosecutor, on the other hand, Attorney General Pam Bondi, celebrated the court's ruling as the Justice Department's "24th victory at the Supreme Court's emergency docket".

Secretary of State Marco Rubio described it as "a huge win" for the president and "for common sense!"