Allies and advisers of President Donald Trump melted down late Friday after a federal court ruled his administration must allow six transgender people to have their preferred gender reflected on their passports.
The Trump administration is not allowed to enforce its policy requiring six passport-holders' sex to align with what's listed on their birth certificate, Judge Julia E. Kobick said in a memorandum and order obtained by Bloomberg. The judge partially allowed the plaintiffs’ motion for a temporary block, finding they were likely to succeed in their lawsuit.
"Six of the seven plaintiffs have demonstrated that they are likely to suffer irreparable harm if the Passport Policy is not enjoined pending full adjudication on the merits of this lawsuit," the ruling said. "The balance of the equities and public interest strongly favor entering an injunction as to these plaintiffs. The Court will therefore grant the request for a preliminary injunction as to these plaintiffs, but will deny the plaintiffs’ further request for a stay of the Passport Policy under U.S.C. § 705, because, as formulated, their request exceeds the scope of relief made available under that statute."
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Trump signed an executive order in January barring updates to the sex designation on U.S. passports and requiring all federal identification documents to reflect peoples' sex assigned at birth rather than their gender identity. Transgender, nonbinary, and intersex Americans sued over the policy.
The State Department has since denied applications from trans and nonbinary people seeking to update their passport sex designation, and returned some passports over the sex marker.
“This decision is a critical victory against discrimination and for equal justice under the law,” said Li Nowlin-Sohl, senior staff attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project. “But it’s also a historic win in the fight against this administration’s efforts to drive transgender people out of public life."
Nowlin-Sohl called the policy a "baseless barrier for transgender and intersex Americans" and said it denies them the "dignity we all deserve."
"We will do everything we can to ensure this order is extended to everyone affected by the administration’s misguided and unconstitutional policy so that we all have the freedom to be ourselves," said Nowlin-Sohl.
MAGA world, meanwhile, lashed out at the ruling.
Trump adviser Stephen Miller wrote on X, "Judicial coup" in response to the ruling.
MAGA attorney Mike Davis, meanwhile, wrote on X: "Insane. Great work, John Roberts."
