Published on: Thursday, June 27, 2024
Starting in at least 2007, Oklahoma has allowed transgender people to obtain Oklahoma birth certificates with amended sex designations. In 2021, the governor issued an executive order directing the Department of Health to stop amending sex designations. Three transgender Oklahomans sue. Tenth Circuit: This is sex discrimination and thus might get heightened scrutiny, but it fails even rational-basis scrutiny. Dissent: It's not clear that all discrimination against transgender people is sex discrimination, but it doesn't really matter because, yeah, it fails rational-basis scrutiny.
The case is Fowler v. Stitt, No. 23-5080 (10th Cir., June 18, 2024).