Rightwing judge orders hospital to ignore federal judge & turn over trans kids' medical recordshttps://www.lgbtqnation.com/2026/05/rightwing-judge-orders-hospital-to-ignore-federal-judge-turn-over-trans-kids-medical-records/ 🔗Faefyx Collington (20 May 2026)
A federal judge in Texas ordered a hospital in Rhode Island to produce documents in response to a subpoena that another federal judge had already quashed. He also issued a gag order against the hospital, blocking it from appealing the order in a court in its area, encouraging others to appeal, or aiding others in their appeals.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has been on what judges have called a "fishing expedition" since July last year, when it first issued subpoenas to over 20 hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to trans youth. Those subpoenas have requested extensive documentation, including patient, provider, and treatment data, sometimes insisting that the data not be anonymized.
When O'Connor issued the order to enforce the subpoena against RIH, Rhode Island's Office of the Child Advocate, along with RIH, stepped in to protect the privacy of the state's trans children. They petitioned Judge Mary McElroy of the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island. McElroy quashed the underlying subpoena, saying that the "DOJ has proven unworthy of this trust at every point in this case." She did this without addressing O'Connor's ruling, which left the Texas judge's order with nothing to enforce
O'Connor has now responded with his own order, which appears to overstep his authority, and which, as out legal reporter Mark Joseph Stern of Slate suggested, "verges on impeachable conduct." O'Connor is insisting that RIH provide the documents that were requested in the quashed subpoena directly to him, to be held "in-camera" by his court, while McElroy's ruling is appealed by the DOJ.
