Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a legal opinion finding that state district courts do not have the authority to direct government agencies to change the sex on government-issued identification documents such as driver's licenses, birth certificates, and ID cards to something inconsistent with a person’s biology. 

In response to a request from the Texas Department of Public Safety (“DPS”), Attorney General Paxton explained that agencies such as DPS and the Department of State Health Services (“DSHS”) must not amend the biological sex on government-issued documents on the order from a district court. Further, state agencies must correct any unlawfully altered driver’s licenses or birth certificates that were changed as a result of the non-legally binding judicial orders. 

“There are only two sexes, and that is determined not by feelings or ‘gender theory’ but by biology at conception,” said Attorney General Paxton. “Radical left-wing judges do not have jurisdiction to order agencies to violate the law nor do they have the authority to overrule reality. In Texas, we will follow common sense and restore any documents that were wrongfully changed to be consistent with biology.” 

The opinion explained: “Directing these agencies to change the contents of driver’s licenses and birth certificates suspends the longstanding statutory directive that both agencies oversee the fixed contents of these documents.…The face of these orders instead reveals that DPS and DSHS are directed to violate the very statutes they are bound to obey.”

To read the full legal opinion, click here.