Schlacter et. al. v. U.S. Department of State et. al.

Lambda Legal filed this case in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. We are challenging a Trump Administration passport policy that prohibits transgender, nonbinary, gender non-conforming, and intersex people (TGNCNBI) from getting accurate sex markers on passports. We represent six transgender plaintiffs whose ability to travel is directly impacted by this policy.

Our case argues that this policy violates our six plaintiffs’ constitutional rights to equal protection, travel, privacy, and speech by discriminating against them based on their sex and transgender status. We also argue that this policy violates the Administrative Procedure Act because the Department of State did not follow the correct administrative process for adopting such a policy. 

We are asking the court to permanently stop the policy as to our clients.  

Currently, this case on hold while we wait for a decision in Orr v. Trump, another case challenging the same policy in a different federal court. 

The Trump Administration’s passport policy is currently in effect for anyone seeking to obtain a new passport, renew an old passport, or update the sex marker on a current passport. For more on this issue, visit our Passport and Identity Document Information resource.