A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked the Justice Department from accessing medical records of transgender individuals treated at New York City hospitals, handing a significant legal defeat to the Trump administration's ongoing investigation into gender-affirming care.
U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla, an Obama appointee in the Southern District of New York, granted a temporary restraining order against the DOJ, prohibiting prosecutors from seeking, receiving, or using any identifying or sensitive patient information. The ruling covers records from NYU Langone Hospitals and the Mount Sinai Health System, which had been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury in Fort Worth, Texas.
The American Civil Liberties Union and allied groups filed suit earlier this month on behalf of three families with transgender youth and two transgender young adults who began care as minors. Chase Strangio, co-director of the ACLU's LGBTQ and HIV Rights Project, said in a statement, “For the past year, the Trump administration has not only decided that it knows better than these families and their doctors what their medical needs are, but has also sought to obtain troves of sensitive information about patients in New York.” Strangio added, “We will continue to fight on behalf of these families and the fundamental liberty of all transgender New Yorkers and those who come here to seek needed medical care.”
The DOJ issued the subpoenas in May under the authority of a federal grand jury in Fort Worth, demanding NYU Langone turn over identities and health information of patients who received treatment for gender dysphoria before age 18 from January 2020 through last month. The subpoenas were part of a Food and Drug Administration probe into drugs used for gender-affirming care. A DOJ spokesperson declined to comment on the ruling.
Judge Failla found that the subpoenas violated the plaintiffs' Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures, as well as their rights to doctor-patient confidentiality under New York law. She also expanded the case to a class-action lawsuit, covering all individuals who received medical treatment for gender dysphoria at New York City hospitals—including NYU Langone and Mount Sinai—from January 2020 through May 5 of this year. According to the Associated Press, at least 40 patients were treated at NYU Langone alone during that period.
Under the ruling, hospital employees are barred from disclosing or producing any identifying or sensitive health information about the class members. Failla set a July 8 hearing to consider additional evidence before deciding whether to impose a longer-lasting preliminary injunction. This decision follows a pattern of judicial pushback against Trump-era subpoenas, including a recent court block of a DOJ bid for Michigan voter data and a judge's dismissal of subpoenas targeting Minnesota Democrats.
The ruling underscores the ongoing legal battle over transgender rights and medical privacy, with the administration's aggressive investigative tactics facing scrutiny from federal courts. The ACLU and its clients argue that the subpoenas represent an overreach that threatens the confidentiality of medical care for transgender youth, a vulnerable population already under political attack in several states.
