ACLU battles fresh attempt to reinstate Trump’s discriminatory trans passport rules

On June 17, Judge Julia Kobick expanded a preliminary injunction preventing the Trump administration from enforcing a ban on issuing passports with the correct gender marker to trans and non-binary people.

The temporary injunction came in the case of Orr v. Trump, which was filed in February 2025 by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of several plaintiffs. 

The June injunction built on a ruling that she made earlier in the year, when she expanded a preliminary injunction to block the government’s plans. She also granted the case class action status, to include all affected individuals across the US, meaning the State Department had to resume issuing passports with the correct gender marker to transgender and non-binary people.

Just days after returning to the White House in January, president Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at preventing the use of “X” gender markers on passports. The directive gave the State Department the green light to change its policies so that passports could only be issued if they “accurately reflect the holder’s sex”. 

On 6 October, according to the ACLU, attorneys representing transgender, non-binary, and intersex Americans asked the Supreme Court to reject a request from the Trump administration to stay Judge Kobick’s preliminary injunction in Orr v. Trump.

“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.”

At the time of writing, the Supreme Court has not issued a public decision on the stay request in Orr v. Trump.

‘A critical victory’

Following the June ruling, Jessie Rossman, the legal director at the ACLU of Massachusetts, said: “This decision acknowledges the immediate and profound impact that the Trump administration’s passport policy has on the ability of people across the country to travel for work, school and family. 

“The passport policy attacks the foundations of the right to privacy and the freedom for all people to live their lives safely and with dignity.”

Meanwhile, Li Nowlin-Sohl, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project, said: “This decision is a critical victory against discrimination and for equal justice under the law. But it’s also a historic win in the fight against the administration’s efforts to drive transgender people out of public life.” 

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