President Trump’s executive order that ends federal funds for health providers who treat transgender youth has been blocked by a federal judge in Seattle.
Judge Lauren J. King on Friday issued a preliminary injunction blocking the government from withholding funds from hospitals in Washington, Oregon, Minnesota and Colorado, the states that sued over the order. The ruling follows a temporary restraining order King had issued in February that sided with the plaintiffs’ claim that the plan is unconstitutional.
Trump’s executive order targets hospitals that offer gender-transition treatment for people under 19, The New York Times reported. The plaintiffs had also challenged its protections against female genital mutilation, but King said “no credible threat of prosecution exists” in such cases, The Associated Press reported.
“The court’s holding here is not about the policy goals that President Trump seeks to to advance; rather, it is about reaffirming the structural integrity of the Constitution by ensuring that executive action respects congressional authority” King wrote, per The Times. “This outcome preserves an enduring system of checks and balances that the founders considered to be ‘essential to the preservation of liberty.'”
Trump’s executive order has been paused for providers nationwide as the result of a separate lawsuit. The temporary restraining order, issued by a judge in Maryland, is set to expire next week.
King’s ruling is the second preliminary injunction that has granted in response to Trump trying to block the support of gender transition. In February, another judge blocked his plan to stop medical treatment related to gender transitions and to house transgender women with male inmates at federal prisons.
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