Albany County birth certificate case lands on Wyoming Supreme Court docket

A sealed Albany County birth-certificate order that gave E.W. a male sex marker is now headed to the Wyoming Supreme Court, turning a local records dispute into a statewide fight over who controls Wyoming’s vital records.

Albany County District Court entered the order, then the Wyoming Department of Health stepped in and tried to undo it. After losing in the lower court, the agency appealed, putting the case before a court whose rulings bind Wyoming judges and state agencies. The dispute is not about whether birth certificates can ever be corrected. It is about whether a district judge can order a sex-marker change on a birth certificate at all, even after the Legislature passed the 2025 What is a Woman Act, which became Chapter 146 on March 14, 2025, and directs agencies to tie vital-statistics recordkeeping to sex at birth.

The practical effect reaches well beyond one sealed file in Cheyenne. If the Wyoming Supreme Court sets a broad precedent, it could affect Albany County residents who later seek amendments to birth records, as well as the county court and state health officials who handle those petitions. Wyoming Department of Health rules already allow a birth certificate to be amended after the first year by affidavit and a physician statement, but the Albany County case tests whether that general amendment process can still be used for sex-marker changes. That is why the case matters to families who need corrected records, not just to lawyers arguing over statutory language.

The underlying district court record is sealed because it contains sensitive medical information, which leaves the public with only the bare outline of what the judge considered. E.W.’s attorney, Cameron Smith, said the person is not a public figure and has concerns about being identified publicly. Wyoming Attorney General Keith Kautz, whose office represents the Department of Health, declined to comment on the pending case.

The Albany County appeal is also part of a broader Wyoming Supreme Court battle already underway. In Natrona County, a separate case involving a transgender woman identified as KR was before the court as of April 1, 2026. KR had a name change in 2021, underwent gender-related surgeries in 2023, and asked for a birth-certificate change in early 2025. Natrona County District Court Judge Joshua Eames denied that request in October 2025, writing that Wyoming birth certificates are meant to record the “facts of birth.” Together, the two cases show how quickly a county court order in Wyoming can become a test of statewide policy, medical privacy, and the limits of agency power over identity documents.