RFK Jr. overstepped legal authority on transgender care for minors, judge rules

RFK Jr. announces new gender-affirming restrictions

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday moved to cut access to gender-affirming care for minors. "This is not medicine. This is malpractice," said Kennedy.

WASHINGTON - A federal judge in Oregon ruled on Thursday that U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had overstepped his legal authority when he declared last December that providers of gender-transition medical treatments for minors fail to meet "professionally recognized standards of health care."

Judge Mustafa Kasubhai ruled that RFK Jr. didn’t go through the proper administrative procedures in December when issuing the declaration, which warned doctors that they could be excluded from federal health programs like Medicare and Medicaid if they provide these treatments.

Judge rules US government overreached with transgender health care declaration

Why you should care:

The ruling grants preliminary relief to health professionals who provide these types of treatments. The judge also denied the government’s motion to dismiss the case.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks at a news conference at the Health and Human Services Department on April 22, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Credit: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

"Today’s win breaks through the noise and gives some needed clarity to patients, families, and providers," Letitia James, the Democratic New York attorney general who led the lawsuit, said in a statement Thursday. "Health care services for transgender young people remain legal, and the federal government cannot intimidate or punish the providers who offer them."

21 states file lawsuit over RFK Jr.’s declaration

The backstory:

Twenty-one states, all led by Democrats, filed a lawsuit in December 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 "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, and therefore, fail to meet professional recognized standards of health care."

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HHS’s declaration based its conclusions on a peer-reviewed report that the department conducted earlier this year that urged greater reliance on behavioral therapy rather than broad gender-affirming care for youths with gender dysphoria.

Major medical groups and those who treat transgender young people have sharply criticized the report as inaccurate, and most major U.S. medical organizations, including the American Medical Association, continue to oppose restrictions on transgender care and services for young people.

The judge’s ruling was at the end of a roughly 6-hour hearing and will be followed by a written decision.

The decision is the second major legal setback for Kennedy and HHS this week. Another federal judge in Boston on Monday temporarily blocked several of Kennedy’s vaccine policy changes. The judge ruled Kennedy likely violated federal procedures in revamping a key vaccine advisory committee and slimming down the childhood vaccine schedule without the committee’s input. Federal officials have indicated they plan to appeal that ruling.