Supreme Court allows Trump administration's anti-trans and anti-nonbinary passport policy (for now)

The Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration on Thursday, allowing it to block transgender and nonbinary people from choosing the passport marker that best aligns with their gender identity while a legal challenge is brought against it.

It's the latest decision from the court affecting transgender and nonbinary people. It's also the latest win for Donald Trump on the court's emergency docket.

Thursday's decision stops a lower court's order that forced the federal government to continue allowing people to choose between male, female, or X on their passports.

In the brief released Thursday, which is unsigned, the conservative-majority court said the Trump administration's policy isn’t discriminatory, according to the Associated Press.

“Displaying passport holders’ sex at birth no more offends equal protection principles than displaying their country of birth,” the order said. “In both cases, the Government is merely attesting to a historical fact without subjecting anyone to differential treatment.”

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However, the three liberal justices disagreed, saying the policy would lead to “increased violence, harassment, and discrimination” toward trans and nonbinary people.

Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote in a dissent, “This Court has once again paved the way for the immediate infliction of injury without adequate (or, really, any) justification."

Earlier this year, the Trump State Department changed its passport policy after Trump's executive order recognizing only "two sexes, male and female."

The Human Rights Campaign called out the court's decision.

“The Trump administration’s policy serves one purpose: discrimination. It exists to out our transgender friends and loved ones, to make their lives more difficult, to demean and embarrass them at the border, in the airport, and throughout their daily lives," said Cathryn Oakley, HRC senior director of legal policy, in a statement. "The State Department had a process in place for decades that allowed trans and, more recently, non-binary people to have documents to present that identified them appropriately. These policies worked. There is no reason to change it other than malice."

This story is developing. Check back for updates.