Federal judge blocks DOJ from getting its hands on trans children’s private medical records

A federal judge in California has ruled that the Justice Department likely cannot lawfully obtain confidential medical records identifying transgender minors who received gender-affirming care at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. The ruling delivers a significant setback to a yearlong federal campaign targeting providers of such care.U.S. District Judge P. Casey Pitts issued the preliminary injunction Thursday in Z.A. v. Blanche, barring DOJ, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, and anyone acting on their behalf from requesting, receiving, or otherwise obtaining records that would identify Packard patients as having sought or received gender-affirming care, disclose their diagnoses or clinical assessments, or reveal consent and parental authorization documents tied to that care.Related: California families sue to stop Trump DOJ from obtaining trans kids’ records via Texas grand juryJennifer Levi, senior director of transgender and queer rights at GLAD Law, one of the organizations representing the families alongside the National Center for LGBTQ Rights and the law firm Lowell & Associates PLLC, said the ruling should ease parents’ fears.“CA families can breathe a sigh of relief,” Levi told The Advocate after the ruling. “This decision makes clear no family should fear that seeking lawful healthcare for their child will put them in the government’s crosshairs.”Levi explained that while the judge’s order applies only to Stanford patients, it is the only hospital in the state to have received such a subpoena so far.Pitts opened his 43-page order by describing DOJ’s broader effort to “end” gender-affirming care for minors experiencing gender dysphoria as the backdrop for the dispute. The order traces how DOJ first sought Packard’s patient records through an administrative subpoena in July 2025, only to withdraw it in May 2026, the day before serving a nearly identical grand jury subpoena on the hospital. That subpoena was issued und