Federal Judges Issue Mixed Rulings on DOJ Subpoenas Seeking Records on Transgender Treatments for Minors

U.S. District Judge Julie Rubin in Maryland heard arguments Tuesday on whether to certify a nationwide class of families seeking to block the Justice Department from obtaining medical records connected to minors who received transgender-related treatments at more than 20 hospitals.

Rubin, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, previously blocked a DOJ subpoena directed at Children’s National Hospital in Washington.

Last month, 11 families expanded the Maryland litigation to seek nationwide class certification. DOJ attorney Scott Dahlquist told the court that certifying a class before discovery would impair the department’s investigation. He said the government could accept records with patient names removed.

“I think that’s a condition that we could live with,” Dahlquist said. Rachel Berg of the National Center for LGBTQ Rights told the court there is no precedent for the government’s actions. Attorneys for the families argued that removing names would not sufficiently protect identities because other information could still identify patients.

Rubin said she would rule as promptly as possible. S. District Judge P. Casey Pitts in California issued a temporary restraining order preventing Stanford’s Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital from complying with a Texas grand jury subpoena seeking the same category of records.

Pitts, also a Biden appointee, had denied an emergency request to stop the subpoena days earlier. After that denial, plaintiffs amended their California lawsuit to add the DOJ and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche as defendants. Late Monday, Pitts issued the restraining order blocking compliance statewide.

The original Texas subpoena had a return deadline of June 10, 2026. During a status conference Tuesday morning, the parties agreed to a revised schedule with the government’s response due June 17, plaintiffs’ reply due June 22, and the subpoena return date pushed back to June 25.

Abhishek Kambli, a former Trump DOJ attorney now with Holtzman Vogel, posted on X that it is unusual for the Northern District of California to grant an administrative stay of an order from the Northern District of Texas.

“Administrative stays normally occur for cases already before the court. Not another court’s,” Kambli wrote. S. District Judge Mary McElroy in Rhode Island, a Trump appointee, who blocked a DOJ subpoena for Rhode Island Hospital records.

U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to take further enforcement action, stating it lacked jurisdiction over the Northern District of Texas. A separate dispute involves Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly in Chicago, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, issued a preliminary injunction barring Uthmeier from pursuing a Florida state court enforcement action and ordered him to notify the Florida court within 48 hours.

Iowa Solicitor General Eric Wessan posted that a federal court in Illinois should not halt a Florida enforcement action brought under Florida law.

The disputes stem from a DOJ investigation that began last summer examining whether hospitals violated federal laws on fraud, misbranding of drugs, or improper billing in connection with transgender-related treatments for minors. President Donald Trump’s administration has sought records from hospitals nationwide.