Judge blocks Trump DOJ’s latest effort to obtain medical records of transgender minors

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from obtaining confidential medical records belonging to transgender youth and their families, intervening just one day before federal prosecutors sought to force a California children's hospital to turn over the documents.In an emergency order issued Monday night, U.S. District Judge P. Casey Pitts directed Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford not to produce additional records sought through a federal grand jury subpoena and barred the government from taking further action to enforce similar demands while the court considers pending motions in the case.The order came after families of transgender youth filed a renewed request for emergency relief in Z.A. v. Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford, a lawsuit challenging the government's efforts to obtain patient records related to gender-affirming care.Related: Trump-appointed judge says DOJ ‘proven unworthy’ of trust in blistering trans care case rulingPitts wrote that Stanford's children's hospital "shall not produce additional records" responsive to portions of the subpoena and that the government "shall not take further action to enforce any grand jury subpoena" seeking the private health information of members of the proposed class. The judge cited legal precedent allowing courts to preserve their jurisdiction when disclosure could effectively moot a case before it is resolved.Since returning to office, the Trump administration has directed federal agencies to investigate hospitals and doctors who treat transgender minors, issued subpoenas seeking patient records from medical centers around the country, and pursued legal theories that several federal courts have rejected. The efforts have alarmed transgender patients and their families, who fear that confidential medical information could be swept into government investigations and that providers could scale back or abandon care under mounting legal pressure. The court's i