Montana judge temporarily halts rules prohibiting transgender individuals from altering gender designations on official documents.

A temporary block on a rule prohibiting transgender individuals in Montana from altering their birth certificate and driver's license sex designations has been ordered by a state judge.

On Monday, District Judge Mike Menahan ruled to block the ban while the case progresses through the courts.

Under Montana law, transgender individuals born in the state are unable to alter the sex designation on their birth certificate, and transgender residents are unable to modify the sex on their driver's licenses without an amended birth certificate.

In April, two transgender women filed a case alleging that they and others who identify as transgender have been unable to obtain documents that accurately reflect their gender identity.

The state maintained that sex is a binary category, with individuals being either male or female, and that transgender individuals are not entitled to protection under the law as a distinct group with constitutional privacy rights.

According to Menahan, it is not necessary to determine at this stage of the litigation whether transgender individuals in Montana constitute a special class based on their transgender status, and he disagrees with the state's argument that discrimination against transgender individuals is not discrimination based on sex.

He wrote that if the state actions being challenged discriminate against transgender individuals based on their transgender status, they also necessarily discriminate on the basis of sex.

The Montana Supreme Court temporarily halted a law prohibiting transgender surgeries for minors, suggesting it may infringe on the state's constitutional privacy right.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.