Judge nixes DOJ subpoena demanding details on transgender patients from Boston Children’s Hospital

“BCH has demonstrated that the subpoena was issued for an improper purpose, motivated only by bad faith,” Joun wrote in a 12-page memorandum of decision.

A spokesperson for the Justice Department reiterated Attorney General Pam Bondi’s words.

“As Attorney General Bondi has made clear, this Department of Justice will use every legal and law enforcement tool available to protect innocent children from being mutilated under the guise of ‘care,’” the spokesperson said in an email Wednesday.

Bondi announced in July that the DOJ had sent more than 20 subpoenas to doctors, hospitals, and clinics nationally that provide gender affirming care. Bondi said the subpoenas were part of investigations into “health care fraud, false statements, and more.”

Boston Children’s Hospital challenged its subpoena in federal court, arguing that it was improper.

A spokesperson said hospital officials had declined to comment on the case until Tuesday.

“Boston Children’s Hospital is grateful for the court’s ruling, which safeguards the privacy of our patients, their families, and the healthcare professionals who provide their care,” Kristen Dattoli, the spokesperson, said in a statement.

“In June 2025, the hospital received an administrative subpoena from the Department of Justice. We moved to quash the subpoena, and the court has now granted that motion, meaning the subpoena is not legally enforceable,” Dattoli said.

“Because our motion was filed under seal, we have refrained from public comment until today’s ruling lifted the seal,” she said. “Access to gender-affirming care is a protected right under Massachusetts law, and we remain committed to providing safe, evidence-based, and compassionate care for every patient and their family.”

The DOJ’s subpoena sought the hospital’s billing codes for the treatment, communications with pharmaceutical manufacturers about the use of puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones, personnel files for all 2,000 of the hospital’s employees, and patient medical records, including Social Security numbers and home addresses, court filings show.

“The requests seek an astonishingly broad array of documents and information that are virtually unlimited in scope,” Joun wrote.

“The Government seeks all this while not offering an iota of suspicion that BCH is actually engaging in fraudulent billing practices or off-label promotion in the first instance,” Joun wrote.

The subpoena said the administration sought to “hold accountable those who mutilate [children] under the guise of care” and pursue investigations of “radical gender experimentation.”

Joun wrote, “The administration has been explicit about its disapproval of the transgender community and its aim to end gender-affirming care.”

“The subpoena reflects those goals, comprising overbroad requests for documents and information seemingly unrelated to investigating fraud or unlawful off-label promotion,” Joun wrote. “It is abundantly clear that the true purpose of issuing the subpoena is to interfere with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ right to protect gender-affirming care within its borders, to harass and intimidate BCH to stop providing such care, and to dissuade patients from seeking such care.”

Boston Children’s Hospital offers gender-affirming care in the form of physical and psychological assessments, ongoing medical care, and therapy and support groups.

“The Government’s publicly stated goal of issuing these subpoenas is also in direct contradiction with the Massachusetts constitution, which provides for the right to GAC,” Joun wrote. “It is thus difficult to understand what exactly the Government is trying to investigate BCH for.”

Gender-affirming care includes a range of medical and mental health services to support a person’s gender identity, including when it’s different from the sex they were assigned at birth. It encompasses counseling and medications that block puberty and hormone therapy to produce physical changes, as well as surgeries to transform chests and genitals, though those are rare for minors.

Most major medical groups say access to the treatment is important for those with gender dysphoria and see gender as existing along a spectrum.

Since 2021, at least 27 states have adopted laws restricting or banning the care for minors, and a US Supreme Court ruling in June affirmed the states’ right to have such policies, at least under certain conditions.

This story has been updated.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.

Tonya Alanez can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @talanez.