A federal judge temporarily blocked a new Trump administration rule on Monday that would rescind Obamacare nondiscrimination protections for transgender patients, citing a June 15 Supreme Court 6-3 decision that extended civil rights protections to employees based on their gender identity or sexual orientation.
A day before it was set to go into effect, Judge Frederic Block of the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of New York blocked the policy announced by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on June 12.
In his 26-page order, Block wrote the court granted a preliminary injunction because it found the Trump administrations proposed rules are contrary to the Supreme Court decision and that HHS acted arbitrarily and capriciously in enacting the rules.
The current definitions for on the basis of sex, gender identity and sex stereotyping will remain in effect pending further court order.
The Trump administration policy rescinds the Obama administrations 2016 gender discrimination rule which redefined sex discrimination to include termination of pregnancy and gender identity, which it defined as ones internal sense of gender, which may be male, female, neither, or a combination of male and female. Trumps policy returns to the governments previous interpretation of sex discrimination according to the plain meaning of the word sex as male or female and as determined by biology.
LGBTQ advocacy organizations said the policy would make it easier for doctors, hospitals and insurance companies to deny care or coverage to LGBTQ people.
When the Supreme Court announces a major decision, it seems a sensible thing to pause and reflect on the decisions impact, Block wrote. Since HHS has been unwilling to take that path voluntarily, the Court now imposes it.
The Obama administrations rules have never gone into effect. In December 2016, a federal court found the provisions were likely contrary to applicable civil rights law, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the Administrative Procedure Act and issued a preliminary injunction. On October 15, 2019, the first federal court vacated and remanded the provisions as unlawful. Both administrations rules leverage Section 1557 of the ACA, which bars certain health care providers and plans from discriminating against people on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability in accordance with civil rights laws including Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Both declined to recognize sexual orientation as a protected category.