The U.S. Department of Justice is continuing its fight for Rhode Island Hospital’s medical records of transgender youth, after a Rhode Island federal judge earlier this week stopped a subpoena issued by the department.
The DOJ appealed to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston on Thursday, in the wake of a Wednesday ruling against the department by U.S. District Court Judge Mary S. McElroy in Providence.“DOJ’s request for intimate medical details from one of this country’s most vulnerable populations constitutes a drastic overreach of its investigative authority,” McElroy wrote in her court order. “The subpoena itself lacks a congressionally authorized purpose, was issued for an improper purpose, and demands the production of records that cannot be obtained consistent with the constitutional privacy rights of Rhode Island children,” McElroy added.
McElroy’s decision “quashed” an administrative subpoena issued by the U.S. Department of Justice, effectively releasing Rhode Island Hospital from any obligation to turn over medical records. In addition, her order prohibits the DOJ from seeking patient-identifying information or medical records from the hospital.
“I was thrilled. I was relieved,” said Kevin Love Hubbard, an attorney for the Lawyers’ Committee for Rhode Island, one of the legal groups on the case. “The ruling protects children in Rhode Island from that extraordinary and improper invasion of their privacy rights.”
The appeal by the DOJ seeks to undo McElroy’s decision.
The DOJ subpoena for medical records is one of many similar legal actions playing out across the country. Last week, the hospital NYU Langone was subpoenaed over teen patients who received gender affirming care. Last year, Boston Children’s Hospital successfully argued to quash a subpoena for information on minors who received gender affirming care. The Boston case is also being appealed.
Hubbard estimated that the DOJ has filed more than 20 similar subpoenas for medical records related to gender-affirming care across the U.S.
The Rhode Island legal battle began in July of 2025, when the DOJ issued a subpoena to Rhode Island Hospital seeking the medical records of children who received gender affirming care dating back to 2020. The request for information included names, social security numbers, addresses, diagnoses, and clinical histories, according to McElroy’s decision.
In response, Rhode Island Hospital began negotiating with the Department of Justice.
On April 30, a federal court in Texas ordered that Rhode Island Hospital had to comply with the DOJ’s request for documents by Thursday, May 14. Rhode Island’s Child Advocate, an attorney who represents children in care of the state, as well as lawyers from The Lawyers’ Committee for Rhode Island and the Rhode Island ACLU, opposed the order and filed a motion to quash the subpoena ahead of the deadline.
“The protections safeguarding these records exist to preserve trust, confidentiality, and the highest standard of care for every child, and defending them is essential to ensuring that no child’s future is harmed by unlawful disclosure,” said Katelyn Medeiros, Rhode Island Child Advocate, in a statement.
“No child or family should ever have to fear that the most intimate details of their lives are subject to unnecessary exposure by the federal government when seeking medical care,” she added.
In her decision, Judge McElroy lambasted the Department of Justice’s handling of the case, writing, “DOJ has proven unworthy of this trust at every point in this case.”
McElroy wrote that the DOJ had misrepresented the facts to the Texas court and had not negotiated in good faith in Rhode Island. She also condemned the DOJ’s decision to have a junior attorney unfamiliar with many of the details of the DOJ’s investigation speak to the court, while a senior attorney stood by.
In addition, McElroy denounced the DOJ’s decision to have a court in North Texas issue an enforcement order when there was little evidence that the location had ties to the investigation or the parties in the case. McElroy deemed the move an effort to select “a distant forum that DOJ deems friendly to its political positions.”
In response to the decision, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice wrote: “The Rhode Island court’s attack on the professionalism and integrity of DOJ attorneys is outrageous and unjustified. We are appealing, and our investigations continue.”
Hubbard, of the Lawyers’ Committee for Rhode Island, said his group “will defend the order vigorously on appeal.”
