DOJ subpoenaed six years of records on every minor treated for gender dysphoria at Rhode Island Hospital

On July 9, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice served an administrative subpoena on Rhode Island Hospital demanding roughly six years of records of every minor treated there for gender dysphoria — including identities, addresses, diagnoses, treatments, and parents' names. Filings later described the demand as reaching an "extraordinarily broad range of sensitive information," among it mental-health records, accounts of bullying, family dynamics, trauma histories, and suicidal ideation.

The subpoena was not an isolated demand. It was one strand of a nationwide DOJ campaign that, by mid-2026, had targeted more than 20 doctors and hospitals providing gender-affirming care to minors. The hospital did not comply, and the demand went unenforced for nearly ten months before it reached a court.

Updates

2026-05-01 — DOJ moved to enforce the subpoena [7]

The Justice Department announced it was seeking a court order compelling Rhode Island Hospital to comply, stating that the hospital had not complied to date.

2026-05-13 — A federal judge quashed the subpoena [1][3]

U.S. District Judge Mary S. McElroy of the District of Rhode Island quashed the subpoena in an opinion issued that evening, after emergency motions filed May 4 by the state's Office of the Child Advocate and a hearing on May 12. McElroy called the demand "a drastic overreach," wrote that it "lacks a congressionally authorized purpose," and concluded it had been "issued in bad faith for an improper purpose." In a passage unusual for the directness with which it linked the enforcement action to White House policy direction, the opinion noted that the administration "has publicly characterized gender-affirming care for minors as abuse, directed the DOJ to bring its practice to an end, and celebrated when hospitals curtailed such programs as a result of this subpoena campaign." At least seven other federal courts had already quashed or limited similar subpoenas, making this the eighth such block of the campaign.

2026-05-14 — DOJ appealed to the First Circuit [2]

The Department appealed McElroy's ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

2026-05-18 — A parallel Texas proceeding sought the same records [3]

Reporting indicates a Texas federal judge ordered Rhode Island Hospital's pediatric gender-dysphoria records produced directly to that court, and the hospital indicated it would comply — prompting the Rhode Island Child Advocate to seek an emergency motion to block release, and leaving the conflict for the First Circuit to address on appeal.