Protections Expanded Against Trump’s Transgender Passport Policy

A court order preventing the Trump administration from enforcing its passport policy requiring sex listed on passports to be based on a person’s birth certificate was expanded to cover a nationwide class of transgender citizens.

Judge Julia E. Kobick granted and modified a preliminary injunction Tuesday to expand the relief beyond the six people initially included and granted class certification. She said in an opinion in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts the class was likely to succeed on the merits of its constitutional and federal law claims, suffer irreparable harm, and is favored when examining the balance of equities and public interest.

Class members “may effectively be forced to out themselves as transgender or non-binary every time they present their passport—whether for international travel or to verify their identity in administrative settings, such as employment paperwork or opening a bank account,” Kobick said.

Kobick previously granted the injunction to cover only the transgender people named in the lawsuit. The newly certified classes will consist of transgender or non-binary people seeking either an “M,” “F,” or “X” sex designation that is different from the sex assigned to them, according to the opinion.

Eligible class members must either not have a valid passport, need to renew their current passport because it expires within one year, need to change the sex designation on it align with their gender identity or to reflect a name change, or need to apply for another one since it is lost, stolen or damaged, an order said.

The American Civil Liberties Union and Covington & Burling LLP represent the plaintiffs.

The case is Orr v. Trump, D. Mass., No. 1:25-cv-10313, 6/17/25.