California AG, Multistate Coalition Ask Court to Block DOJ From Obtaining Minors’ Gender‑Affirming Care Records

California Attorney General Rob Bonta and a multistate coalition have asked a federal judge in San Francisco to block the U.S. Department of Justice from obtaining records related to minors’ gender-affirming care from Stanford Children’s Hospital, escalating a case that has become a key test of patient privacy and state control over medical regulation.

The filing, announced Monday by Bonta’s office, supports patients seeking a temporary restraining order against the Justice Department. The dispute centers on a federal criminal grand jury subpoena seeking protected health information from Lucile Salter Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford. The court has already temporarily barred additional production of some records while the case proceeds.

The proposed amicus, or friend-of-the-court, brief was filed June 15 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in Z.A. et al. v. Lucile Salter Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford, Case No. 5:26-cv-04998-PCP. The underlying lawsuit was filed May 27 by current and former Stanford patients trying to stop the hospital from disclosing records sought by the Justice Department.

According to a June 8 text order from the Northern District of California, the subpoena at issue is a federal criminal grand jury subpoena dated May 6, 2026, and issued under seal from the Northern District of Texas. On June 8, the patients filed an amended complaint, a motion for class certification and an application for a temporary restraining order.

The proposed class described in the court filings includes people who received gender-affirming care at a California health care institution while under age 18 between Jan. 1, 2020, and May 5, 2026, including Stanford patients. That same day, the California federal court ordered Stanford Children’s Hospital not to produce additional records in response to parts of the subpoena. The court also ordered the federal government not to take further action to enforce any grand jury subpoena seeking the private health information or patient records of members of the proposed class unless the court says otherwise.

In the states’ brief, the coalition argues that the Justice Department’s subpoena effort intrudes on states’ traditional authority to regulate the practice of medicine and threatens their ability to protect access to what the states describe as medically necessary care. The brief also argues that compelled disclosure of patient records would undermine privacy protections for minors and families receiving treatment in states where such care is lawful.

“We will not stand by as the U.S. Department of Justice attempts to improperly access Americans’ private health data and infringe on states’ rights,” Bonta said in a June 16 statement from the California Department of Justice.

The Stanford case is the latest legal fight over federal efforts to obtain records tied to gender-affirming care for minors. In 2025, the Justice Department issued administrative subpoenas to providers offering that care. Federal courts in Massachusetts and Maryland later quashed or limited similar requests for patient identities and records. Research cited in the assignment also identified a parallel 2026 case involving NYU Langone in New York, suggesting the Stanford dispute is part of a broader campaign rather than a one-off clash.

That broader context matters because the question before the California court is not abstract: it is whether federal prosecutors can compel disclosure of minors’ medical records from providers operating in states that permit gender-affirming care, and whether courts will step in before those records are turned over.

For now, the records remain protected. California’s Department of Justice said the federal government has agreed not to seek to enforce pending process, or seek, receive or accept records containing the proposed class members’ protected health information, until at least June 26, 2026, while the case moves forward.