For Immediate Release

NCYL Urges First Circuit to Protect Transgender Youth from Sweeping DOJ Demand for Medical Records

Brief asks appeals court to uphold a Rhode Island ruling safeguarding young patients’ privacy, dignity, and trust in medical care

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 24, 2026

Media contact:
Georgia Logothetis
glogothetis@youthlaw.org

OAKLAND, Calif. — The National Center for Youth Law today filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit urging the court to uphold a ruling that blocked the Department of Justice from obtaining deeply private medical information about transgender young people and their families.

The appeal concerns a DOJ administrative subpoena served on Rhode Island Hospital. The subpoena demands practically every document related to gender-affirming healthcare provided to young people since 2020. It seeks patients’ names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, addresses, parent or guardian information, diagnoses, informed-consent records, and other documents revealing intimate details about their mental health, physical development, family relationships, and conversations with trusted healthcare providers.

A federal district court granted the Rhode Island Child Advocate’s emergency motion to quash the subpoena. NCYL’s brief asks the First Circuit to affirm that decision.

“The federal government is demanding a detailed record of young people’s bodies, identities, families, and private conversations with their doctors,” said Nina Monfredo, a NCYL attorney. “Young people need to know they can seek care and speak honestly with a healthcare provider without the government placing their most personal information under a microscope. The district court protected that trust, and the First Circuit should do the same.”

NCYL’s brief brings a distinctly youth-centered perspective to the court. Drawing on more than 50 years of advocacy for young people and extensive experience protecting youth confidentiality, NCYL explains that young people have constitutional privacy rights in their medical information under the Fourth and Fifth Amendments. Those rights do not disappear because a hospital holds the records or because the government labels its demand an investigation.

The brief details the real harm that can follow when young people lose control over sensitive health information. Confidentiality helps adolescents trust their doctors, speak honestly, and seek needed care. When young people believe their records may be handed to federal investigators, they may withhold critical information or avoid treatment altogether. For transgender youth, disclosure also creates heightened risks of stigma, harassment, discrimination, and involuntary exposure of their identity.

Courts across the country have repeatedly rejected similar DOJ efforts. NCYL’s brief identifies seven instances in which federal district courts quashed or limited substantially identical administrative subpoenas. It also cites a July ruling from the Northern District of California blocking DOJ from using grand jury subpoenas to obtain records identifying young people who sought or received gender-affirming care.

Those courts found that the subpoenas were excessively broad, lacked a legitimate or sufficiently connected investigative purpose, or appeared designed to pressure providers to stop offering gender-affirming care rather than investigate specific unlawful conduct.

NCYL argues that the Rhode Island subpoena similarly demands vast amounts of sensitive information without showing any legitimate purpose for obtaining young patients’ identities and medical histories. The burden on young people’s privacy, dignity, and security far outweighs the government’s unsupported demand for access.

Every young person deserves to receive healthcare grounded in trust, safety, and dignity. NCYL will continue defending young people from government actions that threaten their privacy and their ability to seek care.

Read NCYL’s amicus brief here.

The case is In re Motion to Quash Administrative Subpoena 25-1431-032 to Rhode Island Hospital, No. 26-1568, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.