By Nate Raymond
June 24 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the U.S. Department of Justice from using subpoenas to obtain medical records of transgender patients who as minors received gender-affirming care from New York City healthcare providers.
U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla in Manhattan issued a temporary restraining order at the behest of several families and patients who sued after NYU Langone Health disclosed it 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.
The Justice Department shifted toward using grand jury subpoenas from Texas after numerous judges nationally quashed some of the 20-plus administrative subpoenas it had previously issued to doctors and clinics providing such care in July 2025.
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.
Failla, who was appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama, said that executive order was among several Trump issued "that sought to identify, to demonize, and ultimately to eradicate an entire population of transgender people."
She said the patients and families were likely to prove that the Justice Department's sweeping demands for their sensitive medical records infringe on their rights to privacy in violation of the U.S. Constitution's Fourth and Fifth Amendments.
"The subpoena expressly targeting members of a particular and uniquely vulnerable group both shocks the conscience and rises to the level of the most egregious official conduct," Failla said during a remote court hearing.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in BostonEditing by Bill Berkrot)
