On Friday, a federal court blocked implementation of an Idaho statute that would provide a procedure by which transgender individuals could change their sex on their birth certificates. U.S. Magistrate Judge Candy Dale ruled, however, ruled that the new law did not go far enough and it violates an injunction she first issued in 2018, in which she ruled Idaho’s law preventing a person from changing their birth certificate to conform with their gender identity unconstitutional. 
 
The law, one of two pieces of legislation regarding transgender rights pushed through the 2020 session by Republicans and signed by Gov. Brad Little in March, allowed transgender individuals to change their birth certificates but imposed stricter criteria such as requiring a court order. 
 
In her order, Dale wrote that the procedure put in place by the state Department of Health and Welfare (IDHW) to implement the law  “effectively denies transgender individuals a meaningful process for changing the sex listed on their birth certificate to reflect their gender identity. This violates the injunction’s directive prohibiting IDHW from categorically rejecting applications from transgender people to change the sex listed on their birth certificates and its mandate that IDHW allow such applications.”
 
There is no word whether the state will appeal this rulling.

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