Judge blocks Trump administration’s demand for Rhode Island hospital’s records of transgender kids
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A federal judge blocked a hearing Trump administration’s comprehensive demands For confidential transgender patient information from Rhode Island’s largest hospital providing gender-affirming care to minors.
U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy’s decision Wednesday is the latest defeat for the U.S. Justice Department, where at least seven federal courts have agreed to quash or limit sweeping civil subpoenas issued to multiple individuals. Last summer 20 doctors and hospitals.
McElroy’s decision also reflected similar concerns the justices had expressed about the broad scope of subpoenas; He said the Justice Department had “tremendous prosecutorial authority and discretion” but was no longer trusted to exercise its authority fairly and honestly.
“DOJ has proven at every point in this case that it is unworthy of that trust,” McElroy wrote.
A DOJ spokesman said Thursday they would appeal and continue their investigation.
“The Rhode Island court’s attack on the professionalism and integrity of Justice Department lawyers is outrageous and unfair,” the department said.
According to the subpoenas, the Justice Department had requested that Rhode Island Hospital provide birth dates, Social Security numbers and addresses of every patient who received transgender care in the past five years. It also included instructions for providing all documentation detailing adverse side effects in minor patients receiving gender-specific care, evaluations that form the basis for prescribing puberty blockers or hormone therapy, as well as patient intake forms and guardian consent.
The Justice Department has repeatedly argued that the information sought in the subpoenas is necessary to investigate possible fraud or illegal off-label promotion of drugs. Finally, at a hearing in Rhode Island, the Justice Department said the investigation was ongoing in the Northern District of Texas, where the chief judge ordered Rhode Island Hospital to comply with the subpoena before McElroy’s ruling invalidated the subpoena.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Brantley Mayers told McElroy during the hearing that the Justice Department is investigating potential “misbranding” of drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, such as puberty blockers for teenagers. While off-label prescribing is legal, Mayers said the Justice Department is concerned about drug companies providing “financial incentives” to Rhode Island doctors to prescribe drugs.
The subpoenas were crucial to obtaining the names of the children and their families so that the Department of Justice could interview them.
McElroy denied this claim.
“The administration has openly characterized gender-affirming care for minors as abuse, directed the Department of Justice to end the practice, and celebrated hospitals restricting such programs as a result of this subpoena campaign,” McElroy wrote.
The Rhode Island decision is the latest development in the fight over transgender youth’s health records. Earlier this week, 11 families filed a class-action lawsuit seeking to block the Justice Department from obtaining the documents. The lawsuit, filed in Maryland federal court, is supported by families with transgender children receiving care in hospitals across the US.
Separately, a hospital in New York announced it had received a grand jury subpoena from federal prosecutors in Texas seeking information about children receiving gender-affirming care and the medical providers who administered that care.
NYU Langone is the first hospital system to publicly disclose that it had received a subpoena for such records as part of a federal criminal investigation. But the agency said Tuesday that it was one of several agencies that received a subpoena from the Northern District of Texas on May 7. The agency said it was deciding how to respond.
“The government cannot use its subpoena power to dissuade families from seeking legal medical care. For transgender and gender diverse children and their families, we want you to know that you are valued and that you are not alone,” Kevin Love Hubbard, an attorney with the Rhode Island Lawyers’ Committee representing the plaintiffs, said in a statement.
Gender-affirming care It includes a range of medical and mental health services that support a person’s gender identity, including that it differs from the sex they were assigned at birth. Counseling may include puberty blockers, hormone therapy to create physical changes, or surgeries to transform breasts and genitals, but these are rare for minors.
Most major medical groups say access to treatment is important for those experiencing gender dysphoria and view gender as existing on a spectrum.
At least 27 states have adopted laws restricting or banning the care of minors, while several other states have adopted laws or policies protecting transgender people’s access to health care.
