U.S. Supreme Court Allows the State Department to Mandate Biological Sex on Passports
November 6, 2025 | Media Inquiries: press@mctxgop.org
The Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision yesterday, allowed President Trump to enforce a new policy that has ended the use of the “X” marker on passports.
President Trump signed an executive order shortly after his inauguration, which directed agencies like the State Department and Homeland Security to issue IDs, including passports, visas, and Global Entry cards, based solely on biological sex assigned at birth.
This reversed prior allowances for self-selected genders, including “X” for unspecified.
The ACLU represented transgender individuals who sued over the Trump Administration’s passport policy and two liberal district court judges struck down the Trump Administration’s new passport policy prior to the Supreme Court hearing of the case.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court upheld the Trump Administration’s passport policy and allowed the State Department to mandate biological sex on passports.
“Displaying passport holders’ sex at birth no more offends equal protection principles than displaying their country of birth—in both cases, the Government is merely attesting to a historical fact without subjecting anyone to differential treatment,” the Supreme Court said.
Liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, with whom Justice Sotomayor and Justice Kagan joined, dissented.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi celebrated the latest SCOTUS win.
“Today’s stay allows the government to require citizens to list their biological sex on their passport,” Bondi said. “In other words: there are two sexes, and our attorneys will continue fighting for that simple truth.”