Second judge halts Trump’s order targeting access to gender-affirming care

Washington — A federal judge in Seattle put a pause on President Trump’s directive that seeks to restrict access to gender-affirming care for young people under the age of 19, becoming the second in so many days to halt the president’s efforts to target access to the treatments.

The order from U.S. District Judge Lauren King was issued Friday as part of a legal challenge brought one week ago by a group of three states — Washington, Minnesota and Oregon — and three physicians who provide the care for transgender patients being treated for gender dysphoria.

King, appointed by former President Joe Biden, held a hearing earlier Friday on the states’ bid to temporarily bar enforcement of Mr. Trump’s order limiting access to gender-affirming care for young people. A brief entry on the court’s docket indicated that King had agreed to grant a temporary restraining order and would issue a written order.

The block will remain in place while legal proceedings move forward.

King’s decision follows a similar move by a federal judge in Maryland, who on Thursday temporary halted Mr. Trump’s executive action for 14 days. His order came in a case brought by the ACLU on behalf of a group of seven transgender youth and two LGBTQ rights organizations.

The president’s directive, issued in his first week in office, threatens research and education grants awarded to medical institutions that provide gender-affirming care to patients under the age of 19. Treatments covered by the order include puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgical procedures.

The Democrat-led states that sued the Trump administration over the order said it deprives transgender youth of life-saving medical care. They called it a “cruel and baseless broadside against transgender youth, their families, and the doctors and medical institutions that provide them this critical care.”

“It is an official statement of bigotry from the president that directs agencies to openly discriminate against vulnerable youth on the basis of their transgender status and sex,” state officials wrote in their lawsuit. “It is also a blatant abuse of power. The order usurps spending and legislative powers belonging exclusively to Congress, and seizes the States’ historic police powers to regulate the practice of medicine in violation of the Tenth Amendment.”

But the White House has defended the order as part of an effort to protect children from treatments that can have negative health consequences and that lack evidence as to their efficacy. Justice Department lawyers wrote in a court filing that the suit is also premature, as federal agencies have not threatened to revoke any particular grants at issue in the executive order.

Additionally, the Justice Department said Article II of the Constitution gives the president the authority to direct agencies to take steps to further his administration’s policies. 

“That sort of order — cutting off at the jump the ability of the Executive Branch to even pursue a general course of action — would be a remarkable intrusion on a separate branch of government, in conflict with Article II,” they argued in the filing. “The president has the constitutional authority to direct his subordinates to pursue a general policy goal, consistent with all applicable law.” 

Half of the states have enacted laws in recent years that limit access to gender-affirming care for minors. The Supreme Court is currently considering the constitutionality of one of those laws, from Tennessee, and will likely issue a decision in the challenge brought by former President Joe Biden’s administration, three families and a doctor by the beginning of July. 

The Trump administration reversed the government’s position in that case and said Tennessee’s law does not violate the Constitution. It urged the Supreme Court to decide the case.