Q & A: Orr v. Trump

Following a January 2025 Executive Order from President Donald Trump, the State Department began barring people from obtaining passports with a sex designation on them that is not the same as their sex assigned at birth. In response, the ACLU filed a federal lawsuit challenging the State Department’s policy on behalf of transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people. On June 17, 2025, in response to an ACLU motion, a federal court issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting application of the policy and requiring a return to the government's prior policy that had allowed individuals to designate what sex designation they wanted on their passport (including allowing an X marker) while the case continues. However, on November 6, 2025, the United States Supreme Court granted a request from the Trump administration to stay the injunction and allow the government to enforce the Trump administration's discriminatory passport policy against transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people while the ACLU’s legal challenge to the policy continues.

Now that the policy will be enforced, anyone who applies for a new, corrected, or replacement passport, or for a passport renewal is at risk of having their passport issued bearing the sex they were assigned at birth. Read more about the ACLU’s lawsuit and the Supreme Court's order below.