Missoula judge finds DMV discriminated by not issuing driver's license
(Photo illustration by Getty Images.)
A Missoula judge has found that the Montana Department of Justice and the Motor Vehicle Division has violated the state Constitution and discriminated against a minor who was refused a driver's license because they were nonbinary.
Missoula County District Court Judge Shane Vannatta said the state had broken the law by not allowing an 'NB' listing on the license, which stands for nonbinary, and had refused to issue the license because the minor would not choose between 'male' and 'female' on the driver's license application.
The decision also amends a finding by the Montana Human Rights Commission examiner who had originally found that discrimination likely occurred when it treated the youth, listed in court documents as 'M.B.,' differently than others. The individual hearing officer who originally found evidence of discrimination was later overruled by the Human Rights Commission because state law only allows for a binary option of 'male' and 'female,' it said. Furthermore, the HRC's final ruling said that while discrimination based on sex is protected, gender is not a protected class.
Vannatta's decision upheld the original examiner's work.
The parents of M.B. had also changed their child's birth certificate so that it also declared 'nonbinary,' part of the evidence presented to the court.
Court documents reveal that the Motor Vehicle Division, Driver Services Bureau, does have the option of nonbinary and can issue licenses as such, but 'no action to effect such change was taken.'
Instead, the Montana Department of Justice argued that 'the law is settled in Montana — sex is male or female.'
'The (plaintiffs) can only establish that M.B. has a subjective gender identity that is not a part of any protected class, and as such their claims fail under any set of facts,' according to the court documents.
However, Vannatta said that the Montana Constitution Article II, Section 4 means that the 'equal protection clause requires that 'all persons be treated alike under like circumstances.''
'M.B.'s accurately completed MVD application (based on M.B.'s Montana birth certificate) was not accepted and entered into the computer system by the MVD, and as a result they were denied a driver's license when the MVD otherwise affords services to cisgender individuals whose birth certificates reflect the same,' Vannatta said.
The judge said that M.B.'s rights have been prejudiced because the MVD's conclusions were 'characterized by abuse of discretion or clearly unwarranted exercise of discretion.'
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