In re: Administrative Subpoenas to Children’s Hospitals

Eleven families have moved for a class action to block the US Department of Justice (DOJ) from obtaining sweeping access to private, protected health information about transgender youth from hospitals across the country. 

The filing comes in response to escalating efforts by DOJ to force hospitals and providers to turn over patients’ private medical records, including personal identifying information, despite federal court orders prohibiting the government from obtaining that information from multiple hospitals.

DOJ has issued at least 20 essentially identical subpoenas to hospitals across the country demanding they turn over extensive protected medical records of individuals under 18 who have received transgender health care. The subpoenas demand a wide range of sensitive information, including patient dates of birth, Social Security numbers, and home addresses. Courts have condemned these demands, stating they lack any proper investigative purpose and amount to unlawful overreach, intimidation, and harassment of patients.  

Despite this, DOJ has aggressively accelerated its efforts to get patients’ protected information. Late last week, DOJ filed a petition in the Northern District of Texas to enforce a subpoena against Rhode Island Hospital. That petition was granted within hours and without any notice to patients.

Families argued in this filing that without class-wide protection, DOJ will continue unlawfully extracting transgender minors’ protected information hospital by hospital, faster than any individual can go to court to stop them.  

The families are represented in the class action by Donovan Bendana and Joshua Rovenger of GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD Law), Rachel Berg and Shannon Minter of National Center for LGBTQ Rights (NCLR) and Eve Hill of Brown, Goldstein & Levy LLP.