On November 21, 2025, in a lengthy decision, U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Mark A. Kearney quashed a subpoena issued by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania’s Gender and Sexuality Development Program (CHOP) seeking documents:
(1) identifying the names, addresses, and social security numbers of its child patients prescribed puberty blockers and hormone therapy and their families’ identifying information; (2) the child’s medical treatment records including diagnoses; and, (3) describing each child’s informed consent, patient intake, parent or guardian authorization, and use of medicine not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
CHOP objected to producing “child-patients’ confidential medical records” and moved to quash the subpoena’s request for these three categories of records
The court found that the DOJ:
Offers no basis to compel the Hospital to identify the children (and their families), their treatment records, and disclosures made to them. We further find, even if the information responsive to these three requests is relevant (and thus authorized by Congress for a subpoena), the children’s and their families’ privacy interests in their highly sensitive and confidential medical and psychological treatment in an charged political environment which considers their medical treatment to a radicalized warped ideology far outweigh the Department of Justice’s shifting need for the information specifically identified in the three challenged requests. We grant the Hospital’s motion in part striking the three challenged requests and all information contained in responses to other requests disclosing the same information.
This decision comes on the heels of the actions of other federal judges quashing identical DOJ subpoenas identical to the one issued to Boston Children’s Hospital, and telehealth provider QueerDoc in September and October 2025 respectively. The DOJ has appealed from the Boston Children’s Hospital order but has not yet appealed the QueerDoc order.