DOJ issued more than 20 subpoenas in gender-affirming care probe
A divided federal appeals court ruled 2-1 on Friday that the Justice Department may proceed with a subpoena against a provider of gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth, holding that President Donald Trump’s stated goal of ending such care does not supply a basis for quashing the demand for records.
In its decision, a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the efficacy and long-term risks of the treatments are “uncertain” and concluded that the president has the power to align the Justice Department’s enforcement priorities with his broader policy goals. “Every President has law enforcement priorities, just as every President has signature policies (often, the former are components of the latter),” Judge Carlos Bea wrote for the majority.
The ruling revives a subpoena that a lower court had blocked. The Justice Department announced in 2025 that it had issued more than 20 subpoenas to doctors and clinics that provide gender-affirming care as part of what the department described as an investigation into healthcare fraud.
Federal judges have quashed many of the subpoenas, characterizing them as illegitimate efforts to intimidate providers into ending care. Friday’s appellate panel reached the opposite conclusion on the subpoena before it, finding that the president’s policy preferences do not by themselves render the enforcement action improper.
Friday’s decision allows the Justice Department to continue an investigation in which federal judges have quashed many of the more than 20 subpoenas the department has issued to providers of gender-affirming care.