Health Law
Judge rejects HHS Secretary Kennedy’s attempt to limit gender-affirming care for minors
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, testifies during a hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Ways and Means Committee on April 16, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Heather Diehl/Getty Images)
A federal judge in Oregon has found that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, acted “with cruelty” when he restricted federal funding to medical providers who provide gender-affirming care to minors.
“This case demonstrates how disregard for the rule of law does not merely result in an abstract infraction,” wrote U.S. District Judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai of the District of Oregon in a 49-page opinion Saturday. “Rather, and tragically, this case is one of a long list of examples of how a leader’s wanton disregard for the rule of law causes very real harm to very real people.”
In December, Kennedy issued a declaration asserting that certain forms of gender-affirming care for minors “are neither safe nor effective” and “fail to meet professional recognized standards of health care.”
A coalition of several states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit, alleging that the declaration unlawfully permitted the Department of Health and Human Services to exclude medical providers from federal health care programs if they provided that type of care.
In siding with the plaintiffs, Kasubhai said Kennedy’s declaration was “both procedurally and substantively unlawful under the [Administrative Procedure Act].”
“The Kennedy declaration exceeded defendants’ statutory authority, flouted applicable notice and comment rulemaking procedures, and impeded plaintiffs’ rights to regulate the medical profession and their discretion to design their own statutorily-compliant Medicaid plans,” the judge wrote in his opinion.
Kasubhai also dismissed the federal government’s argument that throwing out Kennedy’s declaration would be a violation of his First Amendment rights.
“Secretary Kennedy’s First Amendment rights are not even at issue, much less offended,” Kasubhai wrote.
In addition to vacating the declaration, Kasubhai barred the federal government from further attempts to supersede professionally recognized standards for gender-affirming care for minors.
OregonLive.com has additional coverage.
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