A Montana judge blocked health officials on Thursday from enforcing a state rule that would prevent transgender people from changing the gender on their birth certificate.
District Court Judge Michael Moses chided attorneys for the state during a hearing in Billings for circumventing his April order that temporarily blocked a 2021 Montana law that made it harder to change birth certificates.
Moses said there was no question that the new rule recently adopted by the Montana Department of Health and Human Services violated his earlier order. The court’s action reinstates a 2017 Department of Public Health and Human Services rule that eased the process of changing one’s birth certificate.
The legal dispute comes as conservative lawmakers in numerous states have sought to restrict transgender rights, including with bans on transgender girls competing in girls school sports.