US judge blocks DOJ from obtaining transgender care records from California hospital

A demonstrator holds a trans flag during a rally in Seattle, Washington, U.S. February 8, 2025. REUTERS/David Ryder/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab

July 2 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Thursday blocked the U.S. Department of Justice from using a grand jury subpoena to obtain medical records of transgender patients who as minors received gender-affirming care from a children's hospital affiliated with Stanford's medical school.

U.S. District Judge P. Casey Pitts in San Jose issued a preliminary injunction , opens new tab at ​the behest of several families and patients who sued after Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford received a grand jury subpoena as part ‌of the Trump administration's crackdown on treatments for transgender youth.

That subpoena was issued by a grand jury in the Northern District of Texas, a venue long popular among conservative litigants and that had recently emerged as a hub for the Justice Department's criminal investigation.

Pitts, who was appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden, said the subpoena was issued as part of the Justice Department's "mission to 'end' gender-affirming ​care for minors experiencing symptoms of gender dysphoria."

He said it began issuing grand jury subpoenas to hospitals after numerous judges across the country quashed some of the ​20-plus administrative subpoenas it had issued last year to providers of gender-affirming care seeking evidence of purported fraud and violations of federal ⁠healthcare laws.

It had issued them after President Donald 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, and directing the Justice Department to prioritize investigations into such treatments.

Pitts said the patients and families pursuing the class-action before him were likely to prove that ​the Justice Department's demand for their private health information and medical records from Packard would violate their rights to informational privacy under the U.S. Constitution's Fifth Amendment.

"DOJ lacks any discernibly legitimate interest in reviewing private and identifying medical information about the provisional class," he said.

Allowing the records to be turned over pursuant to a grand jury subpoena, Pitts said, would mean "the information will be ​accessible to the drivers of what courts around the country have found to be a bad-faith campaign to intimidate hospitals into halting the lawful provision of gender-affirming care."

While ​the judge agreed to prevent the Justice Department from obtaining the patients' records from the hospital, he declined to go even further and prevent disclosure of records from other hospitals in ‌California, saying ⁠the record did not establish that patients of other care providers face a similar risk of harm.

Shannon Minter, a lawyer for the plaintiffs at the National Center for LGBTQ Rights, welcomed the ruling in a statement.

"Families in California can now breathe a sigh of relief that this blatant attempt to harass and intimidate them and to dictate how they raise their own children has been stopped," Minter said. "Today’s preliminary injunction ruling is a strong indication our case will succeed on the merits."

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

The ruling ⁠marked the third time a judge intervened to block the Justice Department from obtaining records pursuant to grand jury subpoenas.

A federal judge last month blocked the DOJ from using subpoenas to obtain medical records of transgender patients who as minors received gender-affirming care from New ​York City healthcare providers, including NYU Langone Health, which had disclosed receiving a grand jury subpoena.

Another federal judge has blocked the ​Justice Department from receiving ⁠records from Brown University Health-operated Rhode Island Hospital. The hospital has in the interim turned over medical records to a Texas judge whose court is holding onto them while appeals play out.

The case is Z.A. v. Blanche, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, No. 5:26-cv-04998.

For the plaintiffs: Christopher Stoll of the National Center for Lesbian Rights; Donovan ⁠Bendana of GLAD ​Law; and Shannon Minter of the National Center for LGBTQ Rights.

For the hospital: David Schumacher and ​Alicia Macklin of Hooper, Lundy & Bookman

For the United States: John Bailey of the U.S. Department of Justice

Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; editing by Daniel Wiessner

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