HELENA (KPAX) — The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services issued an emergency rule Monday that eliminated any path for transgender Montanans to change the sex on their birth certificates.

The rule, which took immediate effect, is another development in an ongoing legal battle between the state and two transgender Montanans, who are represented by the ACLU of Montana. The lawsuit is over the constitutionality of a 2021 state law, which required transgender Montanans to get surgery and a court order to change the sex designation on their birth certificate.

In April, a district judge ordered a preliminary injunction, which prevented the state health department from enforcing the law while the case was fought in court.

About a week ago, the ACLU threatened to take legal action against the state for not complying with the court order. In the ACLU’s May 17 statement, it said the judge’s order told the state to return to a process created by a 2017 rule, which allowed transgender people to get an updated birth certificate after submitting an affidavit and a gender designation form.

However, in the state health department’s notice of adoption of temporary emergency rule, the court’s order wasn’t clear and left the state in an “ambiguous and uncertain situation.” Because the 2021 law required DPHHS to get rid of the 2017 rules the process the court ordered it to return to is “nonexistent,” the state said. The state also denied the court issued a mandatory order to return to the 2017 process.

The state health department justified the emergency rule because of the “perception” the state’s Office of Vital…