US Supreme Court Upholds Passport Policy, Impacting Transgender Rights

The US Supreme Court has decided in favor of the Trump administration's policy requiring US passports to reflect a traveler’s biological sex, affecting transgender and nonbinary individuals. This ruling, considered a setback for LGBTQ rights, has sparked dissent and criticism from legal experts and advocacy groups.

The US Supreme Court, in a landmark decision on Thursday, backed the Trump administration's rule that mandates US passports to reflect the biological sex of travelers, either male or female. This decision dealt a significant blow to transgender and nonbinary Americans who argued that the policy was unconstitutional, as reported by CNN.

The ruling marks another triumph for the Trump administration on the judicial front and poses a further challenge for LGBTQ rights, coinciding with the court's review of numerous cases involving state laws targeting transgender individuals. In the court's unsigned order, it was stated that indicating passport holders' sex at birth does not infringe on equal protection principles.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, appointed by former President Joe Biden, along with two other liberal justices, expressed strong dissent. She criticized the court's tendency to ignore obvious equitable solutions, describing the decision as an enabling step for immediate harm without sufficient justification. The ACLU condemned the court's move as a 'heartbreaking setback' for freedoms, fearing increased risks of harassment and violence toward transgender individuals.

(With inputs from agencies.)