Overview
- U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla provisionally certified a class and on Wednesday paused a grand jury subpoena that sought identifying and sensitive medical records for patients who received gender-affirming care as minors in New York City between January 1, 2020 and May 5, 2026.
- The temporary restraining order bars the Justice Department and specified NYU Langone entities from seeking, receiving, using, retaining, or disseminating identifying health information obtained through the subpoena while the court reviews plaintiffs’ constitutional privacy claims.
- The Justice Department says the records relate to a probe of possible drug “misbranding,” billing and off-label use, but Failla questioned the subpoena’s breadth and said she could not conceive of a crime that required disclosure of six years of highly sensitive patient data.
- Hospitals including NYU Langone and Mount Sinai curtailed or ended pediatric gender-affirming programs earlier this year after federal pressure and threats to funding, a development plaintiffs say shows the subpoenas have chilled care.
- The case, brought by three families and two young adults with representation from Lambda Legal, the ACLU and the NYCLU, highlights a pattern of courts rejecting DOJ administrative subpoenas and the department’s move to seek grand jury subpoenas from Texas; a July 8 hearing will determine whether the pause becomes a longer-term injunction.