ACLU Condemns Missouri AG’s Proposed Emergency Rule Attempting to Limit Gender-Affirming Care

BOSTON – Attorneys representing transgender, nonbinary, and intersex Americans asked the Supreme Court today to reject a request from the Trump administration to stay a preliminary injunction in Orr v. Trump, a challenge to the Trump administration’s policy requiring that passports bear only a person’s sex designation assigned at birth. “The lower courts have made abundantly clear how discriminatory and baseless the State Department’s new policy is and the harm it poses for hundreds of thousands of people like our clients,” said Li Nowlin-Sohl, Staff Attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project. “People across the country depend on identity documents that accurately reflect their identity–who they are in their workplaces, their schools, and their communities. The administration’s attempts to deny that right to transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people has no basis in law or policy, and we’ll continue to fight this policy until it is permanently defeated.” "The Trump administration's attempt to deny accurate passports to hundreds of thousands of Americans would cause immediate, irreparable harm if allowed to take effect," said Jessie Rossman, legal director at the ACLU of Massachusetts. "Transgender, nonbinary, and intersex Americans rely on accurate identity documents to travel with safety, privacy, and dignity. We are asking the Supreme Court to reject this request for a stay and preserve the injunction issued below so our clients will be spared profound disruption and distress while their case proceeds." On his first day in office in January 2025, Trump signed an executive order attempting to mandate discrimination against transgender people across the federal government and government programs. This included a directive to the Departments of State and Homeland Security “to require that government-issued identification documents, including passports, visas, and Global Entry cards” reflect a person’s sex “at conception.” Within 48 hours, the State Department paused the processing of some passport applications submitted by transgender, intersex, and nonbinary people and returned others with a newly-issued passport marked with their sex assigned at birth. Over 214,000 public comments in opposition to the State Department’s new policy were collected by the ACLU and Advocates for Transgender Equality. In February 2025, Orr v. Trump was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Massachusetts, and Covington and Burling LLP, on behalf of seven people who had not been able to obtain passports that match who they are because of the State Department’s new Passport Policy or were likely to be impacted by the new policy upon their next renewal. The complaint was filed in the federal District Court for the District of Massachusetts. The complaint was subsequently amended to add five additional transgender, nonbinary, and intersex plaintiffs and to seek to represent a class of transgender, nonbinary, and intersex passport holders. All twelve individual plaintiffs were appointed as class representatives. In April, the court granted a preliminary injunction requiring the State Department to allow six transgender and nonbinary plaintiffs in Orr v. Trump to obtain passports with sex designations consistent with their gender identity or with an “X” sex designation while the lawsuit proceeds. In June, the court granted a class certification request expanding the preliminary injunction to cover all individuals who are currently or will be impacted by the policy in the future. After the First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that injunction, the Trump administration filed a stay request to the Supreme Court of the United States. Under the preliminary injunction, a US passport with a sex designation that aligns with one’s gender identity or with an “X” sex designation should be made available by the State Department to anyone applying to: Obtain a new passport, Change the sex designation or update their name on their current passport Replace a lost, stolen, or damaged passport, or Renew their passport within one year of its expiration. This includes those who, under the Trump administration’s policy, were previously sent a passport with a sex designation listing their sex assigned at birth after applying for a new, renewed, or replaced passport, and/or a changed name or gender marker. Today’s filing can be found here.

TOPEKA, KAN. – The Kansas Supreme Court this week denied Attorney General Kris Kobach’s request to keep in place a district court order preventing transgender Kansans from getting driver’s licenses with accurate gender markers. As a result, an appeals’ court decision protecting transgender Kansans’ rights can go into effect Monday, October 6. At that time, the Kansas Department of Revenue (KDOR) can legally resume making gender changes on driver’s licenses, although KDOR has not yet confirmed when it will begin doing so. “We know that accurate gender markers are a matter of safety and well-being for transgender Kansans,” said Julie Murray, Co-Director of the ACLU’s State Supreme Court Initiative. “The Kansas Supreme Court’s decision this week will finally bring an end to nearly two years of government intrusion on trans Kansans’ privacy and put a stop to the attorney general’s efforts to forcibly out people in their daily lives.” “We look forward to KDOR resuming gender-marker changes on driver’s licenses at the earliest possible time,” said Monica Bennett, Legal Director of the ACLU of Kansas. “The ACLU of Kansas will work to update the local community as soon as more information becomes available, and we look forward to litigating the rest of this case for a final favorable outcome for all transgender Kansans.” The decision this week allows the Kansas Court of Appeals’ decision in June to go into effect in Kansas v. Harper. The unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel lifted the trial court’s injunction that had prevented transgender people from changing the gender markers on their driver’s licenses to reflect their gender identity. The Court of Appeals observed that there was no evidence “beyond mere speculation” to support the trial court’s finding that allowing transgender people to change their gender markers would somehow impair the identification of criminal suspects. The Court of Appeals also held AG Kobach had not shown a substantial likelihood of prevailing on his view that S.B. 180, a state statute that defines “biological sex” for some purposes, requires all new and renewed driver’s licenses to list the driver’s sex assigned at birth. With the Kansas Supreme Court’s decision this week, the case will now return to a new trial court for final resolution. In 2024, the ACLU of Kansas, the ACLU, and Stinson LLP successfully intervened in the case on behalf of transgender Kansans threatened by the Attorney General’s lawsuit against KDOR.

How one West Virginia teenager could shape the future of Title IX and civil rights protections for transgender youth.

BOSTON – A federal appeals court today denied the Trump administration’s request to stay a preliminary injunction that preserves access to passports with accurate sex designations for many trans, nonbinary, and intersex U.S. citizens. The injunction remains in effect, and certain class members may still apply for passports. In April, District Court Judge Julia Kobick granted a preliminary injunction requiring the State Department to allow six transgender and nonbinary plaintiffs in Orr v. Trump to obtain passports with sex designations consistent with their gender identity or with an “X” sex designation while the lawsuit proceeds. Then, in June, Judge Kobick certified two classes of passport holders and expanded the preliminary injunction to include any class member applying to: Obtain a new passport, Change the sex designation or update their name on their current passport Replace a lost, stolen, or damaged passport, or Renew their passport within one year of its expiration.   This includes those who, under the Trump administration’s policy, were previously sent a passport with a sex designation listing their sex assigned at birth. "The ability to access accurate identification is core to the safety and wellbeing of all people in this country," said Jessie Rossman, legal director at the ACLU of Massachusetts. "It has profound impacts on the ability of trans, nonbinary, and intersex to travel and exist in this country. We are glad that the First Circuit upheld the District Court's injunction in this case, and we will continue to advocate for the basic rights and dignity of our clients and all class members." “We’re thankful the court rejected this effort by the Trump administration to enforce their discriminatory and baseless policy,” said Li Nowlin-Sohl, Staff Attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project. “People across the country depend on identity documents that accurately reflect their identity–who they are in their workplaces, their schools, and their communities. The administration’s attempts to deny that right to transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people has no basis in law or policy and we’ll continue to fight this policy until its permanently defeated.” On his first day in office in January 2025, President Trump signed an executive order attempting to mandate discrimination against transgender people across the federal government and government programs. This included a directive to the Departments of State and Homeland Security “to require that government-issued identification documents, including passports, visas, and Global Entry cards” reflect a person’s sex “at conception.” Within 48 hours, the State Department paused the processing of some passport applications submitted by transgender, intersex, and nonbinary people and returned others with a newly-issued passport marked with their sex assigned at birth. Over 214,000 public comments in opposition to the State Department’s new policy were collected by the ACLU and Advocates for Transgender Equality. In February 2025, Orr v. Trump was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Massachusetts, and Covington and Burling LLP, on behalf of seven people who had not been able to obtain passports that match who they are because of the State Department’s new Passport Policy or were likely to be impacted by the new policy upon their next renewal. The complaint was filed in the federal District Court for the District of Massachusetts. The complaint was subsequently amended to add five additional transgender, nonbinary, and intersex plaintiffs and to seek to represent a class of transgender, nonbinary, and intersex passport holders. All twelve individual plaintiffs were appointed as class representatives. Read the order here. For more information about Orr v. Trump, visit: https://www.aclu.org/cases/orr-v-trump For more information about the ACLU, visit: https://www.aclu.org/ For more information about the ACLU of Massachusetts, visit: https://www.aclum.org/