The Department of Justice (DOJ) has dropped its appeal in a Pennsylvania case where the adminsitration sought access to the private medical records of transgender children.
In a short motion, the DOJ asked the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit to dismiss its appeal to a lower court decision that denied the DOJ’s subpoena for the medical records of trans kids who were treated at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC).
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“Our clients can breathe easier with this litigation behind them,” said attorney Henry Hockeimer, whose firm represented the patients and their families fighting to keep their private medical records from being handed over to federal government prosecutors.
At issue is a subpoena the DOJ issued to UPMC last year demanding the private medical records. The Trump administration has been subpoenaing hospitals all over the country for the past year to get trans kids’ medical records. The administration wants these records to search for a reason to prosecute health care providers, even in states that don’t ban gender-affirming care for trans youth. Administration officials have used this tactic to pressure hospitals to stop providing gender-affirming care or even pay for “de-transition clinics.”
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In December 2025, US District Judge Cathy Bissoon quashed the DOJ subpoena in Pennsylvania, calling out the DOJ’s “incendiary characterization” of gender-affirming care as proof of the department’s “ill-intent.”
“The Court is uncertain whether the general public is aware of how broad the government’s campaign is against transgender people,” she wrote at the time, citing a litany of examples. She called the DOJ’s actions “unprecedented” and said that its arguments showed “callous indifference, if not abject cruelty” towards trans people.
The DOJ appealed the decision but dropped the appeal this week with no explanation.
“That’s a win for patients. But it came with a great cost,” Public Interest Law Center director Mimi McKenzie said in a statement. The Public Interest Law Center also represented the families in this case. “They faced the possibility of harassment from the federal government and the fear that their private healthcare records would be in the hands of people who think that transgender and nonbinary people shouldn’t exist.”
“And that’s not speculation; that’s based on the statements of Trump’s own people, including the then-attorney general,” she added. “In seeking these records, the administration’s goal was to scare patients from seeking this healthcare and intimidate providers from offering it.”
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