9th Circuit Revives Trump Subpoena of Trans Youth Care Provider in 2-1 Ruling
Updated
Updated · The Associated Press · Aug 15
9th Circuit Revives Trump Subpoena of Trans Youth Care Provider in 2-1 Ruling
3 articles · Updated · The Associated Press · Aug 15
Summary
A divided 9th Circuit panel reinstated the Justice Department’s subpoena to QueerDoc, reversing a lower-court order that had blocked the demand for records from the Washington state telemedicine provider.
The 2-1 ruling said Trump’s goal of ending gender-affirming care is not itself an improper basis for the investigation and that presidents may align Justice Department enforcement priorities with broader policy aims.
The subpoena seeks personnel files, billing documents, drugmaker communications and records tied to patients prescribed puberty blockers or hormone therapy; the case now returns to district court to weigh QueerDoc’s other objections, including overbreadth and burden.
More than 20 subpoenas were issued last year in a healthcare-fraud probe, though many were previously quashed by judges who saw them as attempts to intimidate providers into stopping care.
The decision marks the first appeals-court ruling on the subpoena campaign and fits Trump’s wider push, including orders defining sex as binary and directing scrutiny of gender-affirming care for patients under 19.