U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy on Wednesday blocked the Justice Department’s sweeping subpoena for Rhode Island Hospital’s transgender patient records, ruling that the department had forfeited the credibility required to compel such sensitive information and that the administration’s own public statements undercut its stated investigative purpose. The ruling voided the demand that the hospital hand over the birth dates, Social Security numbers, and addresses of every patient who received gender-affirming care over the past five years, along with detailed medical files and parental consent forms.
McElroy, in a sharply worded decision, wrote that the DOJ had “proven unworthy of this trust at every point in this case.” She pointed to the administration’s public characterization of gender-affirming care as abuse and its stated goal of ending the practice, noting the department had celebrated when hospitals curtailed such programs as a result of the subpoena campaign. “The administration has publicly characterized gender-affirming care for minors as abuse, directed the DOJ to bring its practice to an end, and celebrated when hospitals curtailed such programs as a result of this subpoena campaign,” McElroy wrote.
The DOJ has insisted the subpoenas are necessary to investigate potential fraud or unlawful off-label promotion of drugs like puberty blockers. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brantley Mayers told the court that the department is looking into whether pharmaceutical companies provided “financial incentives” to doctors to prescribe the medications, and that identifying patients and families was essential to interview them. But McElroy rejected that argument, finding the department’s actions inconsistent with a legitimate investigation.
The Rhode Island ruling is the latest legal defeat for the DOJ’s subpoena push, which began last summer. Over the past year, at least seven other federal courts have moved to quash or limit similar demands sent to medical providers in multiple states. The decision followed a class-action lawsuit filed earlier this week in Maryland by 11 families seeking to block the DOJ from obtaining their children’s medical records.
In a separate development, NYU Langone hospital publicly acknowledged Tuesday that it had received a grand jury subpoena from federal prosecutors in Texas seeking records related to transgender care for minors. It is the first hospital system to confirm receiving such a subpoena as part of a federal criminal investigation. The institution said several others had received similar demands from the Northern District of Texas on May 7.
Kevin Love Hubbard, an attorney with the Lawyers’ Committee of Rhode Island who represented plaintiffs challenging the subpoenas, said the decision sends a message that the government cannot use its subpoena power to intimidate families. “To trans and gender-diverse children and their families, we want you to know that you are valued, you are not alone,” he said in a statement.
Gender-affirming care, which includes counseling, puberty-blocking medications, hormone therapy and, rarely, surgery for minors, is supported by the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and other major medical groups as essential for treating gender dysphoria in youth. At least 27 states have enacted laws restricting or banning such care for minors, while several others have adopted protective policies.
The legal battles over transgender care have intensified under the Trump administration, which has made restricting access to such treatments a central part of its health policy. The DOJ’s subpoenas, originally issued last summer, have drawn fierce pushback from medical associations, civil liberties groups and families who argue they violate privacy rights and unconstitutionally target a vulnerable population.