Appeals court allows Trump DOJ investigation of transgender telehealth provider to resumehttps://www.advocate.com/politics/national/trump-queerdoc-investigation-court 🔗Jacob Ogles (19 Aug 2026)
An appellate court said the Justice Department can continue investigating QueerDoc, a telehealth service providing care to transgender people across the country.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals said a lower court had wrongly blocked a subpoena from Justice Department investigators seeking records that included patient data, insurance claims, billing records, and communications with pharmaceutical companies. The subpoena was one of more than 20 similar demands for information issued to hospitals and clinics.
U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead quashed the subpoena against QueerDoc in October, saying the Justice Department appeared to be on a mission to effectively eliminate gender-affirming care options for Americans. "Such conduct appears calculated to intimidate rather than investigate," Whitehead, an appointee of Democratic President Joe Biden, wrote.
But the government appealed the ruling, and U.S. Circuit Judge Carlos Bea, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush, said that pursuing such a goal was not inherently improper.
"Although the subpoena here was validly based on an investigation of health care law violations, the goal of ending 'gender-affirming care' is not in and of itself an 'improper' policy objective," Bea wrote, as reported by Courthouse News Service. "It is not so irrational or arbitrary as to be ultra vires. The Administration is entitled to adopt a position on either side of this 'ongoing debate among medical experts.'"
