Federal Judge Says Love v Johnson Will Move Forward

DETROIT – A federal lawsuit filed by six transgender plaintiffs against Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson will continue after Federal Judge Nancy Edmunds denied the state's motion to dismiss the case Nov. 16.
The case was filed in May with the help of the ACLU, claiming the state policy is in direct violation of several constitutional rights. Edmunds found the privacy argument valid and declined to review the others.
Edmunds rejected arguments by state lawyers that the policy serves state interests of "maintaining accurate state identification documents" to "promote effective law enforcement" and ensuring "that the information on the license is consistent with other state records describing the individual.
"Indeed, as Plaintiffs point out '(b)ecause of the Policy, the sex listed on (their) licenses fails to match their appearance and the sex associated with their names.' In this way, the Policy undermines Defendant's interest in accurately identifying Plaintiffs to promote law enforcement," Edmunds wrote in her decision Monday.
The Secretary of State's office requires that information listed on a Michigan driver's license or ID matches the information on the applicant's birth certificate. This policy is particularly discriminatory, the ACLU argues, because that means trans men and women must have their birth certificates amended before a gender change can be recorded on their driver's license. If amending this information was easier, there wouldn't be a lawsuit. But the state of Michigan only recognizes a gender change when an individual has gone through sexual reassignment surgery, a very costly operation that many trans men and women do not want to undergo.
For two of the plaintiffs born in Ohio, and a third born in Idaho, changing the gender recorded on their birth certificates is not legally possible and for the other plaintiff born in South Carolina, the change would require a court order.
"The Policy bears little, if any, connection to Defendant's purported interests," Edmunds found, "and even assuming it did, there is no question that requiring an amended birth certificate to change the sex on one's license is far from the least restrictive means of accomplishing the state's goals.
The plaintiffs in the case against Johnson include Emani Love of Detroit, Tina Seitz of Macomb County, Codie Stone of Kalamazoo County and three identified only by their initials, E.B. of Washtenaw County, A.M. of Livingston County and K.S. of Kalamazoo County.
"By permitting us to have our day in court, the judge recognizes that being transgender and living in accordance with your gender identity is a serious, life-altering decision and that Michigan's harmful and unworkable ID policy needs to be critically examined," said Seitz in a statement released by the ACLU of Michigan.