HELENA, MT – Earlier today, a Montana court granted a preliminary injunction preventing the State of Montana from enforcing policies that bar transgender people from obtaining accurate sex designations on their birth certificates and driver’s licenses.
After a prior restriction on amendments of birth certificates was struck down by the courts, in early 2024 the State of Montana enacted a new rule that categorically bars transgender Montanans from correcting the sex designation on their birth certificates.
Around the same time, the state Department of Justice adopted a policy similarly restricting amendment of driver’s licenses. The Plaintiffs challenged these policies in state district court, arguing that they violate various constitutional provisions, including the right to equal protection of the law.
In a recent Montana Supreme Court decision, two Justices concluded that discrimination on the basis of transgender status – as the State is engaging in here – is a form of sex discrimination that violates the Montana Constitution’s equal protection clause.
The plaintiffs, two transgender women, are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Montana, and Nixon Peabody LLP.
Plaintiff Jessica Kalarchik, a veteran who served in the United States Army for 31 years, said, “After finally being able to live my life openly as the woman I know myself to be, I am frustrated that my birth state, Montana, wants me to carry around a birth certificate that incorrectly lists my sex as male. I live my life openly as a woman, I am treated as a woman in my daily life, and there is no reason I should be forced to carry a birth certificate that incorrectly identifies me as male. Fortunately, the court agrees that this ridiculous policy should not be in effect.”
“Once again the State of Montana chose to adopt a draconian policy that is clearly intended to marginalize transgender Montanans, only for that discriminatory action to be blocked by the courts,” said Akilah Deernose, Executive Director for the ACLU of Montana. “Here in Montana we treasure our right to privacy and to live our lives free from governmental intrusion. The State of Montana clearly has not learned any lessons from the past few years, where courts have repeatedly struck down unconstitutional laws targeting transgender Montanans.”
“Forcing anyone to carry documents that contradict their identity unjustly violates their rights to privacy, equal treatment, and not being compelled to convey a government message about their sex that they disagree with”
said Malita Picasso, staff attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project. “Such a policy marks transgender people for further mistreatment and discrimination, essentially requiring them to carry papers that out them as transgender any time they need to provide identity documents. Fortunately, the court has refused to allow the State of Montana to subvert the freedom of transgender Montanans to control their own identity as this case goes forward.”
In granting the Plaintiffs’ Motion for a Preliminary Injunction, the Court held, “[i]f the challenged state actions discriminate against transgender individuals on the basis of their transgender status, they also necessarily discriminate the basis of sex.”
The State has the option of appealing the District Court’s ruling to the Montana Supreme Court, but meanwhile the underlying case will proceed in District Court. A trial has not yet been scheduled.
