DOJ subpoenaed hospital to end gender-affirming care through 'fear,' judge says

By Nate Raymond

Jan 22 (Reuters) - A federal judge has rejected the U.S. Department of Justice's bid to obtain records involving several patients who received gender-affirming care at Children's National Hospital, saying the request was issued as a "pretext" to advance President Donald Trump's goal of ending such treatments for transgender youth.

Wednesday's ruling by U.S. District Judge Julie Rubin in Baltimore added to a growing string of court losses for the Justice Department in its efforts to subpoena healthcare providers that provided such treatments to minors.

At least six other judges in recent months have sustained challenges to some of the more than 20 subpoenas the Justice Department has said it issued to doctors and clinics involved in providing gender-affirming care to children nationwide.

Unlike other hospitals that challenged similar subpoenas, Children's National Hospital in Washington, D.C., did not sue to quash it. After being served a subpoena, it announced in July it was discontinuing the prescription of gender-affirming medications due to "escalating legal and regulatory risks."

Instead, the subpoena was challenged in a lawsuit filed in November by eight families, whose children had received gender-affirming care since January 2020 at the pediatric healthcare provider.

Rubin, who was appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden, said the subpoena constituted an "overreach untethered to any lawful purpose" and instead appeared designed to harass the hospital and its patients to fulfill Trump's political agenda.

"The Government seeks to fulfill its policy agenda through compliance born of fear," she wrote. "Moreover, in the view of the court, the Subpoena is the classic impermissible fishing expedition."

She limited the scope of her ruling to the families who sued, saying that while the subpoena was wholly improper, she was not convinced the plaintiffs had the legal standing to challenge it on behalf of people who were not party to the lawsuit.

Jennifer Levi, a lawyer for the plaintiffs at GLAD Law, in a statement said the ruling was "enormously welcomed by the families who sought it."

"The families involved want what all families want – for their kids to get the medical care that they need and for them to be able to thrive alongside their peers," Levi said.

The Justice Department declined to comment. The hospital did not respond to a request for comment.

The subpoenas to the healthcare providers were issued after Trump, shortly after taking office in January 2025, signed an executive order ending all federal funding or support for gender-affirming care for transgender youth.

The order described such care as a "stain on our Nation’s history, a "dangerous trend" and a form of "chemical and surgical mutilation," and it directed the Justice Department to prioritize investigations concerning such treatments, which U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi then directed the department to do.

The administrative subpoena the Children's National Hospital received was issued on July 3. It sought patient records as part of what the Justice Department said was an investigation into potential violations of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act through the off-label promotion or unlawful dispensing of puberty blockers and hormones to minors.

But Rubin said the Justice Department had not provided any basis on which it suspected the hospital violated the FDCA and that the subpoena was instead "a pretext to fulfill the Executive’s well-publicized policy objective to terminate and block gender affirming healthcare."

The case is In re 2025 Subpoena to Children's National Hospital, U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, No. 1:25-cv-03780

For the plaintiffs: Jennifer Levi of GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders

For the Justice Department: Ross Goldstein and Patrick Runkle of the U.S. Department of Justice

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