A federal judge struck down an Idaho law that effectively barred transgender people from changing the gender listed on their birth certificates.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Candy Dale ruled last week that an Idaho law implemented in July was unconstitutional. The law set up strict guidelines that mandated a court order to change the gender listed on birth certificates in the state. The law also limited the circumstances in which someone could petition the court for an order, which excluded transgender people attempting to adjust their listed gender in most cases.
Dale ruled that the law was unconstitutional.
“The plain language of the statute, as quoted, forecloses any avenue for a transgender individual to successfully challenge the sex listed on their Idaho birth certificate to reflect their gender identity,” she wrote in her ruling.
Dale claimed it violated a court ruling from 2018 in which Idaho had another piece of legislation that directly forbade transgender people from changing the gender listed on their birth certificates. She noted that the strict criteria included in the latest bill had the same effect as the 2018 ban and determined that each piece of legislation was unconstitutional. Nora Huppert, an attorney who represented two transgender people in the case, condemned Idaho lawmakers for attempting to side-step the 2018 ruling with their latest unconstitutional legislation.
“It is astonishing that the Idaho Legislature and Gov. [Brad] Little plowed forward with resuscitating this dangerous and archaic ban in direct defiance of multiple court orders that repeatedly ordered the government to stop discriminating against transgender people,” Huppert told the Associated Press. “What was discriminatory in 2018 remains discriminatory today.”
Gov. Little is a Republican, and Republicans have control of both chambers of the state legislature in Idaho. The state is also facing another lawsuit regarding a policy that prohibits transgender women from competing in female sports. Lindsay Hecox, a transgender student at Boise State University, is suing to be allowed to compete on the women’s cross country team.
