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Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed HB 509, barring transgender residents from correcting birth-certificate sex markers

On March 30, 2020, Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed House Bill 509 into law, adding Idaho Code 39-245A and requiring birth certificates to record sex as an immutable, biology-based category fixed at conception. The law forecloses amending a birth certificate's sex field based on gender identity, permitting correction only within one year via a notarized affidavit attesting the original entry misstated a fact at birth, or afterward only through a court finding of fraud, duress, or material mistake of fact. It passed the Idaho House 53-16-1 and Senate 27-6-2 and took effect July 1, 2020, as Session Law Chapter 334.

Jurisdiction
Idaho
Location
Boise, Idaho

Abuses documented

Actors

On March 30, 2020, Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed House Bill 509 into law as Session Law Chapter 334, effective July 1, 2020. The bill, brought by the House State Affairs Committee with floor sponsors Rep. Julianne Young and Sen. Steve Vick, adds Idaho Code 39-245A, requiring birth certificates to record sex as "the immutable biological and physiological characteristics, specifically the chromosomes and internal and external reproductive anatomy, genetically determined at conception and generally recognizable at birth, that define an individual as male or female." Amendments to the recorded sex are permitted only within one year of filing, via a notarized affidavit signed by the parents or guardian and the attending physician declaring the original certificate misstated a material fact at the time of birth; after one year, the recorded facts may be challenged only in court, and only for fraud, duress, or material mistake of fact. The bill passed the Idaho House 53-16-1 and the Senate 27-6-2 before Little signed it, the same day he also signed House Bill 500 banning transgender athletes from women's school sports.

The law re-codified in statute a birth-certificate policy a federal court had already found unconstitutional: in F.V. v. Barron (later F.V. v. Jeppesen), a U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho judge ruled in March 2018 that Idaho's categorical refusal to let transgender residents amend the sex marker on their birth certificates violated the Equal Protection Clause, and ordered the state to process such amendments. HB 509 sought to reinstate that categorical bar through statute rather than administrative rule.

Updates

2020-08-07 — Federal court confirmed HB 509 violated the standing 2018 injunction [4]

Following a motion by Lambda Legal to enforce the March 2018 F.V. v. Barron ruling, the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho confirmed that HB 509's new statutory bar on amending birth-certificate sex markers violated the court's earlier order, continuing to block the law's enforcement.

2026-01-08 — Federal court dissolved the 2018 injunction, allowing Idaho to enforce the law [5, 6]

Citing the U.S. Supreme Court's 2025 rulings in Trump v. CASA, which limited universal injunctions to the parties in a case, and United States v. Skrmetti, Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador moved to dissolve the 2018 injunction. Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Raymond E. Patricco granted a joint stipulation dissolving it on January 8, 2026, allowing the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare to enforce the birth-certificate sex-marker policy for the first time since 2018.

Why we recorded this

Equal protection and identity rights require that government vital records not be weaponized to erase who a person is. Idaho's HB 509 wrote an immutable, biology-based definition of sex into the birth-certificate statute, foreclosing transgender residents from correcting their sex marker except through a narrow one-year affidavit window or a later court challenge limited to fraud, duress, or mistake. This archive records the first Idaho statute to lock that birth-certificate "sex" definition into law -- the same definition the legislature later reused statewide in HB 421 (2024) to restrict transgender recognition across the broader state code, and which federal courts blocked from enforcement for over five years before a 2026 order allowed it to take effect.

Sources

  1. House Bill 509 (2020) — Bill Status, History, and Signing Record — Idaho Legislature primary accessed July 19, 2026
  2. Idaho H0509 (2020) — Bill Status — LegiScan secondary accessed July 19, 2026
  3. Idaho governor signs two bills limiting rights of transgender people — JURIST secondary accessed July 19, 2026
  4. F.V. v. Jeppesen (formerly F.V. v. Barron, F.V. v. Armstrong) — Lambda Legal primary accessed July 19, 2026
  5. Attorney General Labrador Secures Court Order Ending Yearslong Block on Idaho's Birth Certificate Law — Idaho Office of the Attorney General primary accessed July 19, 2026
  6. Federal judge rules Idaho can prevent transgender people from changing sex on birth certificate — Idaho Capital Sun investigative accessed July 19, 2026

See also