On Thursday, May 11, the US Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favor of a trans woman seeking asylum after she faced persecution in her home country of Guatemala and is now fighting deportation. Santos-Zacaria has also got another chance to make her case to the Fifth Circuit.
What made the ruling even more worthy was that the supreme court used Santo’s pronouns and name during the process. In the ruling, the first majority opinion written by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson mentions she/her pronouns throughout and also uses Santos-Zacaria’s female name, although it uses her dead name in the first reference to her, that being the legal name under which she filed the action. The ruling was unanimous; six other justices joined Jackson’s opinion, and conservative Justice Samuel Alito wrote a concurring one, in which fellow conservative Clarence Thomas joined. Alito’s opinion used the correct pronouns as well.
Scholar and trans rights activist Alejandra Caraballo tweeted about the ruling, praising the use of the preferred name and correct pronunciation.
Lawyer Andrea Reyes also praised the court.
But there were a few who objected to this too.
The ruling has come amid a wave of anti-LGBTQ+ bills in state legislatures. #Trans Rights