Ninth Circuit Revives Arizona Requirement for Doctor-Verified Sex-Change Surgery on Birth Certificates

On Tuesday, a two-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a permanent injunction that had removed language about "sex change operation" from Arizona's birth-certificate amendment law. Writing for the panel, Judge Roopali Desai concluded that the statute, which requires a written physician’s verification of sex-reassignment surgery for a direct amendment, survives rational-basis scrutiny and does not constitute unlawful discrimination.

The court affirmed that transgender people can still alter the gender marker by securing a court order, a route the plaintiffs argued is costly and burdensome. The panel reversed District Judge James Soto’s summary judgment in favor of the plaintiffs and sent the case back for further proceedings. Arizona’s Attorney General’s Office, represented by Deputy Chief Counsel Nathan Arrowsmith, argued in favor of the law, while the National Center for LGBQT Rights’ Rachel Berg praised the ruling as a step toward removing barriers for transgender Arizonans. State leaders Warren Petersen and Steve Montenegro have entered the case as intervenors to appeal the injunction.