The nation’s oldest LGBTQ+ legal rights organization is arguing that the U.S. Department of Justice'ssubpoena of Rhode Island Hospital records is a “fishing expedition”aimed at intimidating doctors from providing gender-affirming medical care to minors, even in states in which such care is legal, like Rhode Island.
LAMBDA Legal Defense and Education Fundfiled a friend-of-the-court brief May 9 in support of Rhode Island Child Advocate Katelyn Medeiros’s effort to quash a DOJ subpoena that seeks medical records for underage patients who received care for gender dysphoria atRhode Island Hospital.
“The administration’s disdain for transgender people and the gender-affirming medical care that enables them to live authentically cannot legitimize the use of DOJ’s subpoena authority to bully law-abiding doctors into conforming to its policy preferences or expose patients’ deeply personal medical information,” LAMBDA wrote.
Twenty states, including Rhode Island, and the District of Columbia have also submitted arguments backing Medeiros’s bid to stop enforcement of the subpoena ordered by a federal judge in Northern Texas. Medeiros is being represented by the Lawyers’ Committee for Rhode Island and theAmerican Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island.
What is this lawsuit about?
The DOJ, meanwhile, argues the subpoena first issued in 2025 is part of a nationwide criminal investigation into off-label use of medications to treat gender dysphoria and false billing practices.
It argues that U.S. District Judge Mary S. McElroy lacks the authority to set aside Texas Judge Reed O’Connor's order, and Medeiros, who advocates for children in state care, lacks standing. It faults the Child Advocate’s challenges to the subpoena as “both misguided and meritless.”
McElroy on May 7 denied the DOJ's request to stay the case or transfer it to Texas.
“The issues are not similar: the Texas court adjudicated the enforceability of the subpoena as between the government and Rhode Island Hospital; this court is asked to adjudicate the independent constitutional privacy rights of minor patients who were never before any court,” McElroy said. The parties are slated to argue the case May 12.
How did we get here?
The DOJ originally filed the subpoena in July 2025, with a return date by Aug. 7 of that year.
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On April 30, 2026, the agencyfiled a motion to enforce the subpoenawith the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, claiming Rhode Island Hospital had not complied with it and only produced “one six-page document” in response. Judge O’Connor approved the motion to enforce within hours of its filing, giving Rhode Island Hospital 14 days to comply with the subpoena.
According to the DOJ, the subpoena is a nationwide criminal investigation into alleged violations of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act over the use of certain prescription drugs to treat gender dysphoria. Among them are hormone suppressants and puberty blockers.
“Although these drugs are approved by FDA for some uses, the agency has not determined that any of these drugs are safe or effective for the treatment of gender dysphoria, nor has FDA approved them for the treatment of gender dysphoria or any other psychiatric disorder,” the government said.
The DOJ’s subpoena requests a trove of medical documents regarding “gender-related care” provided to underage patients at Rhode Island Hospital. These include billing records, insurance claims, diagnosis codes and other medical records.
The Child Advocate argues gender-related care is “lifesaving care that is recognized as medically necessary by every major medical association.”
According to LAMBDA, the government issued nearly identical subpoenas to 20-plus healthcare establishments across the country whose care includes gender-affirming medical care to transgender adolescents.
“The latest salvo in the Trump administration’s broad-based discriminatory, demeaning campaign against transgender people, the subpoenas were issued to intimidate providers of evidence-based gender-affirming medical care for transgender adolescents and to end this care entirely,” the organization said.
Rhode Island Hospital filed a motion to intervene in the case May 10, seeking to preserve its interests and to file its own motion to quash enforcement of the subpoena.
Reporter Jonny Williams contributed to this story.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal:Rhode Island Hospital wins new ally in fight with Trump administration