Child Advocate seeks to block federal government subpoena for private medical records of minors

“The medical records of these children contain private information that is protected under the law, which exists to safeguard confidentiality, privacy, and the dignity of every patient."

Attorneys for the Lawyers’ Committee for Rhode Island (LCRI) and the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island (ACLU) have today filed an emergency motion to quash a subpoena issued by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) seeking the sensitive private medical records of minor patients who have received medical treatment for gender dysphoria at Rhode Island Hospital. [See: DOJ Files In Texas To Force RI Hospital To Hand Over Trans Patient Lists In Judge Shopping Move 1,800 Miles Away] Amazingly, the DOJ’s request to enforce the subpoena for these records was both filed and approved on Thursday – on the same day, without an opportunity for response – by a judge in Texas, not Rhode Island. The motion filed this morning argues that court intervention is “immediately necessary . . . to protect the constitutional privacy rights of Rhode Island’s children.”

Today’s motion was filed in the U.S. District Court in Rhode Island on behalf of the state’s Child Advocate. The motion calls the subpoena an “unprecedented intrusion into the private medical information of children, many of whom are among the most vulnerable in our state’s care,” that “cannot be justified by any legitimate law enforcement purpose.”

Instead, the motion argues, “DOJ issued the Subpoena as part of a coordinated campaign by the Trump Administration to eliminate access to medical care for gender dysphoria – lifesaving care that is recognized as medically necessary by every major medical association – even where it is expressly protected by state law, as it is in Rhode Island. The Administration has made no secret of its true goal: to end medical care for gender dysphoria through intimidation, harassment, and the threat of criminal prosecution.”

In emphasizing the scope of the privacy intrusion implicated by the subpoena, the motion notes:

These requests demand the identities and complete medical histories of every minor patient who received medical care for gender dysphoria at RI Hospital over more than five years. The medical records responsive to these requests contain the most intimate details imaginable: children’s mental health struggles, experiences with bullying or discrimination, family dynamics, sexual development, gender identity, trauma histories, suicidal ideation, and deeply personal conversations with physicians and therapists. For children in DCYF care, these records may also contain information about abuse or neglect, foster care placements, court involvement, and other highly sensitive circumstances. The records would identify not only the children themselves but also their parents, guardians, foster families, siblings, friends, teachers, and others mentioned in clinical notes.

The motion points out that seven other courts across the country have quashed identical subpoenas issued to other providers of medical care for gender dysphoria. The motion further explains that all major medical organizations recognize gender dysphoria—which occurs when there is a conflict between the sex a person is assigned at birth and the gender with which they identify—as a medical condition that can cause significant distress and that appropriate medical care can effectively treat, including in minors.

In describing the subpoena’s potential harm to the children in state care and custody, the Child Advocate’s motion argues that minors who received treatment at Rhode Island Hospital now “face concrete injury—invasion of their privacy, disclosure of their most intimate medical information, potential ‘outing’ of their gender identity, and exposure to harassment or discrimination.” The subpoena must be quashed, the motion argues, “because it was issued for an improper purpose: to eliminate medical care for gender dysphoria at a federal level, rather than to investigate any legitimate federal crime.”

The motion, which seeks an expedited court hearing, was filed on behalf of Child Advocate Katelyn Medeiros by LCRI cooperating attorneys Kevin Love Hubbard, Miriam Weizenbaum, and Amy Romero, and ACLU of RI cooperating attorney Lynette Labinger.

“Children in foster care navigate profound vulnerability, and exposing their medical records compounds that harm,” said Child Advocate Medeiros. “The medical records of these children contain private information that is protected under the law, which exists to safeguard confidentiality, privacy, and the dignity of every patient. When those protections are disregarded—especially for children—it is not merely a violation of the law but a breach of trust that could have profound lifelong consequences. Safeguarding these records must remain a priority, ensuring that every child’s identity, medical record, and personal health history are shielded from disclosure and treated with the highest standard of care and respect.”

This is not the first legal challenge in Rhode Island this year to extremely intrusive DOJ efforts to procure the personal and private information of Rhode Islanders. Last month, the Rhode Island Secretary of State, the ACLU, and LCRI obtained a favorable court decision dismissing a DOJ demand for the Social Security Numbers and driver’s license numbers of all Rhode Island voters.

A copy of the motion can be found here.

See also: Oped: In service to those we love, we must keep fascists separate from power