Montana’s Supreme Court is giving the ACLU of Montana on behalf of plaintiffs 20 days to file a response to the state’s petition to strike down a lower court’s order that the health department needed to permit gender marker changes on birth certificates.
The Secretary of State’s office spent about $1.3 million on legal fees, far surpassing its $100,000 budget, defending election laws being challenged in courts in the state.
The state health department is enforcing its rule largely barring transgender Montanans from being able to update the gender marker on their birth certificate despite scathing comments and an order Thursday from a District Court judge.