In a 2-1 decision, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Tennessee statute saying that birth certificates need to line up with sex does not violate the 14th Amendment. The state was sued by four men who identify as women who wanted to change the sex on their Tennessee birth certificates to female.
"But absent an existing fundamental right, the Constitution does not require the States to embrace the plaintiffs’ view of what information a birth certificate must record," wrote Judge Jeffrey Sutton. "That’s why Tennessee’s choice to record sex — not gender identity — does not withhold a constitutionally prescribed benefit. Its amendment policy treats both sexes equally, and as elaborated below there is no fundamental right to a birth certificate recording gender identity instead of biological sex."
