{"id":369493,"date":"2026-06-21T21:42:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T21:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/369493\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T21:42:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T21:42:07","slug":"trumps-doj-cant-get-names-and-medical-files-of-trans-youth-in-california-for-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/369493\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s DOJ Can’t Get Names and Medical Files of Trans Youth in California, for Now"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the same time, many hospitals and clinics that had been providing gender affirming care for young people all over the country have ended their programs<\/a>, citing legal and financial pressure from the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

And this week, a federal judge in Maryland rejected a bid<\/a> to certify a class<\/a> of families of transgender youth nationwide to fight the administrative subpoenas. Craig Konnoth<\/a> is a professor specializing in health law and LGBTQ rights at the University of Virginia School of Law.<\/p>\n

He notes that the federal government\u2019s moves to get private medical records are unprecedented and could have effects far beyond transgender youth.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just search and seizure of medical records,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s the ability of the government to come after you, hoping that they\u2019ll be able to catch you out in something, that they will attach a label to afterwards, because they don\u2019t like the group that you belong to or the group that you\u2019re trying to assist.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why, he says, if the government succeeds in these efforts, the implications are vast.<\/p>\n

Transcript:<\/p>\n

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:<\/p>\n

Families of transgender youth in California learned this week their private medical records will not be sent to the Trump administration for now. NPR\u2019s Selena Simmons-Duffin spoke to one of the families.<\/p>\n

SELENA SIMMONS-DUFFIN, BYLINE: For nearly a year, the Department of Justice has served hospitals with subpoenas, seeking detailed patient files of transgender youth, personnel files for providers and more. Attorneys for the government haven\u2019t articulated exactly what\u2019s being investigated, but they have pointed to the stated goal of President Trump to end gender-affirming care for youth. At first, they used administrative subpoenas. Many of those were quashed in court. Now they\u2019ve moved to criminal subpoenas.<\/p>\n

SHANNON MINTER: They\u2019re literally seeking the \u2013 exactly the same things, same private information. Nothing has changed.<\/p>\n

SIMMONS-DUFFIN: That\u2019s Shannon Minter with the National Center for LGBTQ Rights, which has brought many of the lawsuits fighting these subpoenas.<\/p>\n

MINTER: It is pure harassment. It\u2019s just an effort to frighten people, to intimidate doctors out of providing the care and to frighten parents and make them afraid that the federal government is going to seek them out, identify them and harm their families.<\/p>\n

SIMMONS-DUFFIN: This week, Minter and families in California notched a win. A group of six families, who received care at Stanford\u2019s Children\u2019s Hospital, sued to prevent the hospital from sending any of their medical files to the Department of Justice. Right before a deadline for the hospital to send those files, a federal judge in northern California granted a request to put it on hold temporarily for the whole state. Arne Johnson is the parent of a trans teen in the Bay Area. He says even if the win is temporary, it\u2019s still a relief for parents like him.<\/p>\n

ARNE JOHNSON: This is like being in a stormy ocean right now, like you\u2019re floating on a raft, and each individual wave is terrifying, but we also know we have a really long journey to survive.<\/p>\n

SIMMONS-DUFFIN: He says he\u2019s thankful for the families that brought the case and the attorneys representing them.<\/p>\n

JOHNSON: It\u2019s impressive and very noble in a time when people are compromising and turning their backs on our families. You know, it just really means a lot to folks to see how hard people are working to fight for our kids.<\/p>\n

SIMMONS-DUFFIN: The Department of Justice did not respond to NPR\u2019s request for comment about this case. Also this week, a federal judge in Maryland heard a case to certify a class of families of transgender youth across the country in the fight against the administrative subpoenas. Minter is an attorney in that case as well.<\/p>\n

MINTER: There are many families who are now protected, but there\u2019s also many who are not yet protected, and that is a big problem.<\/p>\n

SIMMONS-DUFFIN: So far, these many legal challenges have been quite effective.<\/p>\n

MINTER: We don\u2019t have any reason to believe that any hospitals have turned over records yet, but, I mean, there would be no way to know that for certain.<\/p>\n

SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Craig Konnoth is a health law professor at the University of Virginia. He notes the government\u2019s moves to get private medical records here are unprecedented and could have effects far beyond transgender youth.<\/p>\n

CRAIG KONNOTH: It\u2019s not just search and seizure of medical records. It\u2019s the ability of the government to come after you, hoping that they\u2019ll be able to catch you out in something that they will attach a label to afterwards because they don\u2019t like the group that you belong to or the group that you\u2019re trying to assist.<\/p>\n

SIMMONS-DUFFIN: That\u2019s why, he says, if the government succeeds in these efforts, the implications are vast.<\/p>\n

Selena Simmons-Duffin, NPR News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the same time, many hospitals and clinics that had been providing gender affirming care for young people…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-369493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}