Court issues opinion and judgment in AG Brown case protecting youth gender-affirming care

AG Brown, along with the Attorneys General of Oregon and New York, led a coalition of 22 states that secured a federal court order Saturday permanently blocking an unlawful attempt by the Trump administration to threaten healthcare providers for treating youth with gender dysphoria. 

A federal district court issued a written opinion and judgment, granting the plaintiff states’ summary judgment motion. The court agreed with every argument made by the Plaintiff States. In the Court’s opinion, Judge Kasubhai held that the Secretary Kennedy’s attempt to prohibit medical care for youth with gender dysphoria “exceeded [the federal government’s] statutory authority, flouted applicable notice and comment rulemaking procedures, and impeded Plaintiffs’ rights to regulate the medical profession and their discretion to design their own statutorily-compliant Medicaid plans.”

“This is a resounding win for the rights of youth, their families, and the rule of law when it comes to medical care,” Washington Attorney General Nick Brown said in March when the court announced it would be granting a written order in favor of the states. “The court agrees that the administration ignored the law in its rush to deprive transgender youth of the health care they are legally entitled to.”

On December 18, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a declaration asserting that certain forms of gender-affirming care are “unsafe and ineffective” and that the declaration would supersede all other state standards of care. In the declaration, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. attempted to give HHS the power to exclude healthcare providers, including hospitals and clinics, from Medicare and Medicaid programs simply for providing care for transgender adolescents. 

AG Brown and the coalition immediately sued in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon, arguing that Kennedy lacked the legal authority to issue the declaration; that HHS’s actions were arbitrary and capricious; and that the agency failed to adhere to the necessary procedural requirements for notice-and-comment rulemaking.

At the end of a summary judgment hearing last month, a federal judge agreed with the states and gave an oral ruling stating the court would block the federal government’s threats.  The Court’s written opinion and judgment effectuate that prior ruling and protect healthcare providers and hospitals from the devastating effects of HHS’s unlawful actions.

Joining Attorney General Brown in this lawsuit are the attorneys general of Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawai’i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin, and the governor of Pennsylvania.

A copy of the court's opinion and judgment is available here.

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