A federal judge in Manhattan has temporarily blocked the U.S. Department of Justice from using grand jury subpoenas to seek sensitive health records of patients who received gender-affirming care at NYU Langone, Mount Sinai and other New York City hospitals as minors.
Judge Katherine Polk Failla, in an oral decision on Wednesday, granted a temporary restraining order in a class-action lawsuit filed by a group of trans New Yorkers against NYU Langone Health and the U.S. Department of Justice. The injunction will remain in place at least until the case's next hearing on July 8.
Failla agreed with the lawyers for the plaintiffs that patients who received gender-affirming care at Mount Sinai and other New York City institutions as minors should be included in the class represented in the lawsuit.
NYU Langone declined to comment and the DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Lucia Lee, a spokesperson for Mount Sinai, said the hospital system would comply with the court’s order.
The lawsuit was filed in response to NYU Langone’s May announcement that it was one of several institutions that had received federal grand jury subpoenas from the Trump administration seeking records related to the hospital’s provision of services, such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy, to patients under 18.
The plaintiffs argue this is part of a larger campaign by the Trump administration to attack trans people and end gender-affirming care.
The subpoena issued to NYU Langone sought identifying information about patients, the personnel files of their medical providers, and records related to billing and coding for gender-affirming services, among other documents.
Gothamist reported earlier this month that Mount Sinai Health System received a similar subpoena.
In her lengthy oral decision, Failla noted that the Trump administration had previously sought similar information from healthcare institutions across the country through administrative subpoenas, all of which were either partially or fully rejected in court.
“ But undeterred by its disastrous showing in the courts, DOJ decided to issue nearly identical document requests in the form of grand jury subpoenas emanating from the Northern District of Texas,” Failla said.
NYU Langone has not contested patients’ requests for an injunction blocking the hospital system from sharing their medical records with the Trump administration. In a court filing earlier this month, NYU Langone said it had reached an agreement with the DOJ that, if the health system ultimately had to share patients’ health records, it would be allowed to redact identifying information — but that the DOJ could later request that the records be “unmasked.”
Mount Sinai Health System has similarly said it would anonymize patients’ medical records if they had to be shared with the Trump administration.
But, according to Failla, counsel for NYU Langone argued in a hearing in the case Tuesday that it would be difficult to ensure that patients’ records were truly anonymous, given the many data points they contain and advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence.
Outside Mount Sinai's Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery on Wednesday evening, patients and their families said the judge's order offered some relief but did little to ease their concerns about the hospitals eventually sharing medical records.
"It's hopeful," said Winter Collins, 16, a Brooklyn teenager who received gender-affirming care. "It still leaves my medical records and the medical records of many others in jeopardy."
Christen Clifford, whose two children received gender-affirming care at NYU Langone, said she remains skeptical that anonymizing records would adequately protect patients' privacy.
"I do not want my children's health records anywhere near the Department of Justice," she said.
This case is being litigated as Mount Sinai and NYU Langone face backlash from some LGBTQ+ advocates over their decisions to discontinue gender-affirming care for minors earlier this year. Some critics have called for the hospitals to be banned from this Sunday's annual NYC Pride March for “capitulating” to the Trump administration.
Advocates for trans youth are protesting in front of Mount Sinai, NYU Langone, and NewYork-Presbyterian on Wednesday afternoon.
This story was updated with additional comment.
