A federal judge gave the Trump administration a big lump of coal on Christmas Eve for its effort to harass transgender youth receiving gender-affirming health care.

U.S. District Judge Cathy Bissoon blocked the Department of Justice’s subpoena for the personal health care information of minors receiving gender-affirming care at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). Bissoon, who was nominated to the bench by then-President Obama, is at least the fourth judge to reject the DOJ’s would-be intrusion into the health care of trans youth.

Bissoon made it abundantly clear that she believes the DOJ’s stated reason for wanting the information is simply a cover for its anti-trans animus.

“[T]his Court joins the others in finding that the government’s demand for deeply private and personal patient information carries more than a whiff of ill-intent,” Bissoon wrote in her ruling. “This is apparent from its rhetoric.” She cited the “incendiary characterization” of trans youth care on the DOJ’s own website as proof. The site calls trans health care as “fraud,” a “barbaric practice,” and “genital multilation,” even though the vast majority of gender-affirming care for youth has nothing to do with surgery.

In a footnote, Bissoon went so far as to call out the Trump administration’s overall attack on trans rights. “The Court is uncertain whether the general public is aware of how broad the government’s
campaign is against transgender people,” she wrote, citing a litany of examples.

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The government had argued that the parents who brought the lawsuit lacked standing, because the subpoena was directed at UPMC, and didn’t respond in timely manner. Bissoon rejected the timeliness argument in particular as “disingenuous.”

Knowing that it was likely to fail without changes to its request, the DOJ backtracked on Dec. 16, saying that it didn’t need personal patient files, but instead would accept anonymized medical records. Bissoon noted that the DOJ’s change came “in the face of its mounting losses” and rejected the request.

In her ruling, Bissoon turned to an unlikely source for support: U.S. v. Skrmetti, the Supreme Court decision that paved the way for states to ban gender-affirming care for trans youth. “The government’s diktat, moreover, flies in the face of the Supreme Court’s decision in Skrmetti, wherein the majority repeatedly emphasized the reservation of these matters to the States,” Bissoon wrote. She cited from the majority and concurring opinions, including that of Justice Samuel Alito, to bolster her argument.

It’s unclear where the DOJ will go in the face of its ongoing losing streak. Meantime, the day before Bissoon’s ruling, nineteen states sued to block the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announcement of a proposed rule to end all federal funding for any hospital in the United States that provides gender-affirming care to minors.

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