A federal judge has extended her order blocking the Justice Department from accessing the private health records of minors who received gender-affirming care at New York City healthcare institutions, converting a temporary restraining order into a preliminary injunction.
On July 6, U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla of the Southern District of New York granted the preliminary injunction, finding the plaintiffs are substantially likely to win their underlying case and would suffer irreparable harm without continued protection. The order also extends class certification, meaning the ruling continues to cover not just the named plaintiffs but everyone who fits the class definitions.
Becker’s obtained the court order.
The order covers two groups: a Class of anyone who received gender-affirming medical treatment as a minor at any New York City healthcare institution, including NYU Langone and Mount Sinai Health System, between Jan. 1, 2020, and May 5, 2026, and an NYU Subclass limited to patients treated at NYU entities during that same window. The Class is shielded from the Justice Department’s use of the subpoenaed information; the NYU Subclass is shielded from NYU disclosing it.
Under the injunction, the Justice Department and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche are barred from seeking, receiving, using, retaining or disseminating any identifying or sensitive health information obtained through the subpoenas. NYU Langone Hospitals, NYU Langone Health System and NYU Grossman School of Medicine are barred from disclosing patient records to the Justice Department in response to those subpoenas.
Ms. Failla also waived the standard security bond, finding it would pose a hardship for the patients and their families while the government would face no real cost from the order. NYU Langone’s deadline to formally respond to the underlying complaint has been pushed to Aug. 10.
The Justice Department first sought this relief through a temporary restraining order, which Ms. Failla granted June 14. NYU Langone received the underlying grand jury subpoena from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Texas on May 7, demanding records on patients younger than 18 who received gender-affirming care between 2020 and 2026, as well as the names of the providers involved.
The subpoena came amid a broader Justice Department investigation into gender-affirming care for minors. In 2025, the Justice Department issued subpoenas to more than 20 physicians and clinics nationwide, including UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. In that case, the Justice Department later agreed to narrow its request to anonymized patient records after patients raised privacy concerns in court.
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