Partner Eve Hill, along with co-counsel from GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD Law) and National Center for LGBTQ Rights, is representing eleven families who have moved for a class action to block the US Department of Justice (DOJ) from obtaining sweeping access to private, protected health information about transgender youth from hospitals across the country.
The filing comes in response to escalating efforts by DOJ to force hospitals and providers to turn over patients’ private medical records, including personal identifying information, despite federal court orders prohibiting the government from obtaining that information from multiple hospitals.
DOJ has issued at least 20 essentially identical subpoenas to hospitals across the country demanding they turn over extensive protected medical records of individuals under 18 who have received transgender health care. The subpoenas demand a wide range of sensitive information, including patient dates of birth, Social Security numbers, and home addresses. Courts have condemned these demands, stating they lack any proper investigative purpose and amount to unlawful overreach, intimidation, and harassment of patients.
Despite this, DOJ has aggressively accelerated its efforts to get patients’ protected information. Late last week, DOJ filed a petition in the Northern District of Texas to enforce a subpoena against Rhode Island Hospital. That petition was granted within hours and without any notice to patients.
Families argued in today’s filing that without class-wide protection, DOJ will continue unlawfully extracting transgender minors’ protected information hospital by hospital, faster than any individual can go to court to stop them.
“History has shown what happens when the government collects lists of the members of groups it disfavors. We cannot allow that history to repeat itself,” said BGL partner Eve Hill.
“The Department of Justice has turned its investigative power into a weapon against families and it has to stop. Federal courts have been clear: these subpoenas have no legitimate purpose, they are designed to harass and intimidate in order to further a political agenda. Medical privacy isn’t optional, and it should chill every one of us to see people’s private, protected information handed over to the federal government,” said GLAD Law Legal Director Josh Rovenger.
“This case takes aim at a dangerous and chilling example of government overreach. The Trump administration should not be able to demand access to and review private medical records – for no legitimate purpose. This is a grave threat to family and medical privacy and cannot go unchallenged,” said National Center for LGBTQ Rights Legal Director Shannon Minter.
ABOUT EVE HILL
Eve Hill is one of the nation’s leading civil rights lawyers, known especially for her work with clients with disabilities and LGBTQ+ clients. She has been recognized by Law360 as one of just 12 “Titans of the Plaintiffs’ Bar” for 2023, as well as by Lawdragon as one of the 500 Leading Lawyers in America (2022-2026). Her wide-ranging experience complements Brown, Goldstein & Levy’s decades of dedication to high-impact disability rights cases and its advocacy on behalf of individuals with disabilities and their families. Eve also leads Inclusivity, BGL’s Strategic Consulting Group, which works with organizations to promote the education, engagement, and employment of people with disabilities. Read more about Eve here.
ABOUT BROWN, GOLDSTEIN & LEVY
Founded in 1982, Brown, Goldstein & Levy is a law firm based in Baltimore, Maryland, with an office in Washington, D.C. The firm is nationally recognized in a wide variety of practice areas, including complex civil and commercial litigation, civil rights, health care, family law, and criminal defense. Above all else, Brown, Goldstein & Levy is a client-centered law firm that brings decades of experience and passionate, effective advocacy to your fight for justice.
PLEASE FIND MEDIA COVERAGE BELOW
Families ask judge to block Trump DOJ nationwide from getting trans kids’ medical records | Advocate (May 9, 2026)