Families ask judge to block Trump DOJ nationwide from getting trans kids’ medical records

As the Trump administration intensifies its campaign against transgender people’s healthcare, families across the country are asking a federal court to stop the Justice Department from obtaining the private medical records of transgender children.

Eleven families filed a proposed nationwide class action Saturday in federal court in Maryland seeking to block the Department of Justice from enforcing subpoenas sent to children’s hospitals around the country. The subpoenas demand extensive protected health information related to minors who received gender-affirming care, including names, home addresses, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, diagnoses, and treatment records.

The lawsuit, In re: Administrative Subpoenas to Children’s Hospitals, represents a dramatic escalation in the growing legal war over transgender rights under President Donald Trump’s second administration. Families and civil rights attorneys accuse the federal government of weaponizing investigative powers to intimidate hospitals, frighten parents, and create what they describe as a de facto registry of transgender youth receiving medical care.

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The plaintiffs are represented by GLAD Law, the National Center for LGBTQ Rights, and Brown Goldstein & Levy LLP.

“The Department of Justice has turned its investigative power into a weapon against families, and it has to stop,” GLAD Law Legal Director Josh Rovenger said in a statement shared with The Advocate. “Federal courts have been clear: these subpoenas have no legitimate purpose, they are designed to harass and intimidate in order to further a political agenda.”

The filing comes less than 48 hours after another major legal setback for the Trump administration’s broader campaign targeting transgender healthcare providers and medical organizations. On Thursday evening, Chief Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia temporarily blocked Federal Trade Commission investigations into the World Professional Association for Transgender Health and the Endocrine Society, ruling the groups were likely to succeed on claims that the investigations were retaliatory and rooted in hostility toward transgender people.

In sharply worded opinions, Boasberg said the administration had shown “extensive evidence of animus” and relied on “wafer-thin justifications lacking evidentiary support” in targeting the organizations.

The Maryland filing says DOJ has issued at least 20 nearly identical subpoenas to hospitals nationwide as part of what the families describe as an accelerating campaign targeting practitioners providing gender-affirming care for minors. The care at issue remains legal in the states where the families live and where the hospitals operate.

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For many parents of transgender children, the lawsuit reflects a growing fear that seeking medically recognized care could expose their families to federal scrutiny, even in states where that treatment remains legal.

The complaint argues that without broad nationwide intervention, the DOJ will continue obtaining sensitive patient information “hospital by hospital” before families even have an opportunity to challenge the subpoenas in court.

That concern intensified last week after the Justice Department sought enforcement of a subpoena against Rhode Island Hospital in federal court in Texas. The court granted the request within hours and without notice to affected patients, the filing states.

“This case takes aim at a dangerous and chilling example of government overreach,” National Center for LGBTQ Rights Legal Director Shannon Minter said in a statement. “The Trump administration should not be able to demand access to and review private medical records — for no legitimate purpose.”

The Justice Department has said its investigations relate to potential healthcare fraud and other legal violations connected to gender-affirming treatment for minors. But the Maryland filing argues the subpoenas lack legitimate investigative grounding and instead function as a political tool designed to suppress access to care that remains lawful in many states.

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The plaintiffs also argue that once medical records are turned over to the federal government, the harm becomes irreversible, even if courts later determine the subpoenas were unlawful.

The proposed class comprises families whose transgender children received care at hospitals, including Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, Michigan Medicine, and Rady Children’s Hospital in California.

The families are seeking emergency nationwide relief, blocking the administration from obtaining or retaining patients’ records while the litigation proceeds.

“History has shown what happens when the government collects lists of the members of groups it disfavors,” attorney Eve Hill of Brown Goldstein & Levy LLP said in a statement. “We cannot allow that history to repeat itself.”