The Second Circuit has blocked the Trump administration from accessing sensitive medical records that belong to young transgender people who received medical care in New York.
The U.S Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has denied the Department of Justice’s request to pause a lower court order while the government appeals. The one-sentence decision puts in place a preliminary injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla on July 6, who had also first granted a temporary restraining order in June.
The ruling rejects the efforts made in May by federal prosecutors in the Northern District of Texas to obtain sensitive information and medical records from young people who received gender-affirming care in New York City. The hospital released the subpoena to the public, where it referred to gender-affirming care as “sex-rejecting procedures.” Other hospitals in New York City reportedly received similar subpoenas. Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, senior counsel and health care strategist at Lambda Legal, states:
“The government cannot weaponize the legal system and the use of subpoenas, whether through a grand jury or otherwise, to collect the most private medical information of transgender young people and their families, in violation of the right to privacy guaranteed by our Constitution. Every family should be able to make healthcare decisions without fear of political interference or exposure.”
The subpoena demanded for the release of 17 broad categories of records covering gender-affirming care. These records of provided care span from January 1, 2020 to May 5, 2026. They include documents containing patients’ identifying information and details of their diagnoses and treatments.
The Trump administration is taking many steps to cut off funding and limit access to gender-affirming care. The Second Circuit’s refusals to appeal are just another in a long series of courtroom losses for the administration.
A federal judge in Maryland also denied the Department of Justice from accessing private medical records belonging to patients at Children’s National Hospital in the Washington area. In June, a judge ordered Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford to not produce additional records sought by federal prosecutors. The Department of Justice also abandoned its pursuit of records in Pennsylvania, voluntarily dismissing its appeal of a lower court ruling once again denying access to records from UPMC Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh.
Generally, individuals institutions or the affected patients must challenge the Trump administration’s subpoenas themselves. Advocates say the Second Circuit’s decision is an important victory for families and patients directly affected by the New York case.
Bobby Hodgson, deputy legal director at the New York Civil Liberties Union, says it is “another victory for the fundamental privacy rights of every New Yorker, and an immense relief to transgender youth and their families.” Hodgson states many are thankful to the Second Circuit for leaving the order in place to block these appeals. Transgender rights advocates continue to challenge the Trump administration’s efforts to access sensitive information through the legal system.
Though NYU Langone has not turned over any patient records, it was forced to stopped providing gender-affirming care to minors in February this year. The Trump administration recently finalized a policy to strip all federal funding, such as Medicare and Medicaid, from institutions that offer such care. Still, the fight remains for proper access to gender-affirming care and medical privacy of transgender young people.
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