Judge Rules That R.F.K. Jr. Overstepped on Transgender Care

Source: New York Times

Judge Rules That R.F.K. Jr. Overstepped on Transgender Care

The ruling provides temporary relief for 21 states seeking to stop the Trump administration from ending federal funding to hospitals that provide gender-transition care.


Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the White House earlier this year. Eric Lee for The New York Times

By Amy Harmon
March 19, 2026

A federal judge in Oregon ruled on Thursday that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. overstepped his legal authority when he declared last December that providers of gender-transition medical treatments for minors “do not meet professionally recognized standards.”

The decision, a setback for the Trump administration, gives temporary relief to hospitals, clinics and health professionals who provide such treatments. In the weeks after Mr. Kennedy issued his written declaration, the Department of Health and Human Services indicated that it would investigate institutions that continued to prescribe medication to minors for gender transitions and would potentially bar them from receiving federal Medicare and Medicaid funds.

Twenty-one states, all led by Democrats, had filed a lawsuit over Mr. Kennedy’s issuing of the 12-page declaration, claiming that the statement interfered with the power of states to regulate the practice of medicine within their borders. The declaration states that it “supersedes” statewide or national standards of care and that “sex-rejecting procedures for children and adolescents are neither safe nor effective as a treatment modality for gender dysphoria, gender incongruence, or other related disorders in minors.” ... The states asserted that the federal government had attempted to unilaterally establish a national medical standard, violating the Administrative Procedure Act, which requires federal agencies to act within the bounds of authority delegated to them by Congress.

The federal government countered that the states had failed to show they were harmed by Mr. Kennedy’s declaration, because no individual providers of gender-transition care have been barred from receiving Medicare and Medicaid at this point. In court documents, the federal government’s lawyers characterized Mr. Kennedy’s declaration as a “non-binding policy position” and likened it to an opinion piece in a publication: “Secretary Kennedy, just like anyone else, is entitled to articulate his opinion on the safety and efficacy of emerging and controversial medical practices,” the lawyers wrote.

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Amy Harmon is a Times reporter who covers how shifting conceptions of gender affect everyday life in the United States.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/19/us/rfk-jr-transgender-care-ruling.html