A federal court ruling has cleared the way for Idaho to begin enforcing a long-dormant state law that prohibits people from changing the sex listed on their birth certificates, a move critics say disproportionately affects transgender residents seeking documents that align with their gender identity.
The law had been frozen since 2018, when U.S. District Court Judge Candy Dale issued an injunction preventing the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare from automatically rejecting requests to amend the sex marker unless it was recorded incorrectly at birth. That injunction has now been dissolved, allowing the state to implement the policy for the first time.
Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador welcomed the decision, framing it as a return to what he described as established legal standards. “For years, Idaho was blocked from enforcing common-sense policy and law requiring birth certificates to reflect biological sex recorded at birth,” Labrador said in a news release. “Birth certificates aren’t symbolic documents that are subject to how an individual may feel, they’re legal records used in medicine, public health research, and identification.”
The original injunction stemmed from a lawsuit filed by two transgender women who argued the policy violated the U.S. Constitution. In October, Labrador asked the court to dissolve the order, arguing that subsequent U.S. Supreme Court decisions undermined its legal basis and that the individual claims in the case had already been resolved.
According to the Attorney General’s Office, one plaintiff was ultimately able to change her birth certificate, while the state could not locate an Idaho birth certificate for the second plaintiff. Because both cases were no longer active, the state argued the injunction could not continue to block enforcement statewide.
State attorneys also cited a U.S. Supreme Court ruling issued in June that upheld a Tennessee law banning hormone and puberty-blocking medication for minors, asserting that such laws do not constitute discrimination based on sex or age. Labrador’s office argued that Idaho’s birth certificate policy does not single out transgender people.
The legal landscape shifted further in 2020, when the Idaho Legislature passed a separate law emphasizing “biology-based material facts” on birth certificates. Under that statute, changes are allowed only through a court order and only in cases involving “fraud, duress, or material mistake of fact.” With the earlier injunction lifted, that law is now set to take effect.
Attorneys for the original plaintiffs did not immediately respond to requests for comment. However, Lambda Legal, an organization that litigates LGBTQ+ rights cases, has previously described Idaho’s approach as “out of step with the rest of America,” according to prior Idaho Statesman reporting.
Eight states currently prohibit changing the sex marker on birth certificates, according to the Movement Advancement Project, a nonprofit policy organization that tracks LGBTQ+ equality laws nationwide.
