Judges pauses subpoena in transgender care criminal probe

A New York judge on Wednesday temporarily paused a subpoena of a New York hospital system from federal prosecutors in Texas seeking identifiable medical information of young transgender patients. Though only the first brake put on an apparent criminal probe of gender-affirming care to minors at NYU Langone Health, the decision counts as a small victory in a legal landscape growing increasingly hostile to transgender youth.

Judge Katherine Polk Failla, an Obama appointee, issued the temporary restraining order the day after hearing oral argument. She described the Trump administration’s request for sensitive medical records over a six-year period of a “uniquely vulnerable group” of patients as “most egregious” and unconstitutional.

Failla accused the Department of Justice of using criminal probes as a way to acquire private records about gender-affirming care patients after judges across the country rejected similar requests through civil subpoenas. The current administration had authorized orders in its first few days which “sought to demonize and eradicate an entire population of transgender individuals,” she noted during the electronic proceeding, according to The Associated Press.

The ruling came as part of a lawsuit filed this month on behalf of minors, their parents and young adults who received gender-affirming care in New York. According to the lawsuit, NYU Langone Health was one of several institutions to receive the May 7 federal grand jury subpoena requesting records of transgender patients and information about providers and other personnel involved in the rendering of or billing for care.

On Wednesday, Failla also granted the plaintiffs class-action status and determined the Department of Justice had violated the Fourth and Fifth Amendments in issuing the subpoenas. She scheduled a July 8 date to hear additional evidence before she decides on whether to grant a preliminary injunction, blocking the subpoena through the end of the litigation.