A federal judge in Seattle has blocked the Department of Justice’s attempt to compel an online transgender health provider to turn over extensive patient and clinical records — a significant rebuke to the Trump administration’s broader crackdown on gender-affirming care.
U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead ruled that the subpoena served to QueerDoc, a telehealth practice offering gender-affirming care, “serves an improper purpose” and violates the limits of administrative investigative power. The decision comes as the Justice Department, under Attorney General Pam Bondi, has issued more than 20 subpoenas to hospitals and clinics involved in gender-affirming care since July.
Whitehead, appointed under the Biden administration, wrote that the subpoenas appear designed not to investigate criminal conduct, but to execute President Donald Trump’s policy directive to “eliminate” gender-affirming care nationwide. “The Government seeks the ‘intended effect’ of its Executive Orders and these subpoenas to ‘downsize or eliminate’ all gender-affirming care,” he said in his opinion.
This decision adds to growing judicial resistance to the administration’s legal strategy against providers offering gender-affirming care — including a similar ruling last month by Judge Myong Joun in Boston that blocked a subpoena to Boston Children’s Hospital. Additional cases are pending in Pennsylvania involving the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and UPMC.
While the DOJ has framed its investigation as focused on “transgender medical procedures on children,” QueerDoc’s subpoena sought far broader information — including the identities of all patients prescribed puberty blockers or hormone therapy, raising serious privacy and HIPAA concerns.
Implications for Providers
For hospitals and health systems:
- Expect scrutiny and legal risk if your organization offers or affiliates with telehealth or in-person gender-affirming care. The DOJ’s use of subpoenas rather than formal rulemaking signals an aggressive enforcement stance.
- Review your compliance and data protection practices. Whitehead’s decision underscores that subpoenas seeking broad patient data may be found improper, but institutions must still be prepared to respond lawfully and quickly.
- Coordinate with counsel early. Systems providing or referring for gender-affirming care should engage legal teams familiar with federal investigations and constitutional privacy protections.