Federal judge extends her block on a Trump policy that banned self-identifying as transgender or non-binary on passports

A federal judge in Boston on Tuesday extended a block against a policy by President Donald Trump that banned the definition of 'transgender' or 'non-binary' on U.S. passports.

Judge Julia Kobick of the U.S. District Court in Boston issued a new preliminary injunction extending an earlier decision made in April that protected just six people who had sued the federal government over Trump's passport order.

Now, the new measure extends to all people affected by the policy, which was announced last January.

Following the move, the case's current status is much more beneficial to the plaintiffs, as the federal judge granted them class certification, a procedural law figure that allows a lawsuit to be prosecuted as a class action.

Specifically, Kobick completely expanded the scope of the lawsuit, which now applies to all persons who, "currently want, or in the future will want, a U.S. passport issued with an 'M' or 'F' sex designation that is different from the sex assigned to that individual under the Passport Policy."

Likewise, Kobick also wrote that "all people who currently want, or in the future will want, a U.S. passport and wish to use an 'X' sex designation" may subscribe to such a lawsuit.

The case comes months after the Trump administration, through Secretary of State Marco Rubio, clarified that the U.S. government's policy "is that an individual's sex is not changeable."

Then, following an executive order from Trump, Department of State personnel were ordered to suspend applications that include a sex marker "X" in the passport or "suspend any application where the applicant is seeking to change their sex marker."

In the U.S., according to the Williams Institute, there are an estimated 1.3 million people who define themselves as trans or gender non-conforming.