Federal judge quashes DOJ subpoena for trans youth medical records at Rhode Island Hospital, finding it issued in 'bad faith' for an 'improper purpose'

In an opinion issued the evening of May 13, 2026, U.S. District Judge Mary S. McElroy of the District of Rhode Island quashed a Justice Department subpoena, served on Rhode Island Hospital in July 2025, that had demanded roughly six years of records of every minor treated for gender dysphoria at the hospital — including identities, addresses, diagnoses, treatments, and parents' names. McElroy described the demand as "a drastic overreach," wrote that the subpoena "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."

The Rhode Island subpoena is one strand of a nationwide DOJ campaign that, by the time of the ruling, had targeted more than 20 doctors and hospitals providing gender-affirming care to minors. At least seven other federal courts had already quashed or limited similar subpoenas before McElroy's ruling, bringing the total to eight federal-court blocks of the campaign's subpoenas. The Department of Justice has appealed McElroy's ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

A parallel proceeding in Texas has opened a competing legal track on the same set of records: reporting indicates that a Texas federal judge ordered Rhode Island Hospital's pediatric gender-dysphoria records to be 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. The First Circuit will need to address the conflict on appeal. The underlying executive action archived here is the issuance of the original July 2025 subpoena and the broader subpoena campaign against gender-affirming care providers; the May 13, 2026 McElroy ruling is the most recent event that crystallized the bad-faith and improper-purpose findings in a federal-court record.