Attorney General Bonta Opposes Further Attempts by U.S. DOJ to Subpoena Hospital Records on Gender-Affirming Care

OAKLAND - California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Friday joined 17 other attorneys general and one governor in filing an amicus brief in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. The brief opposes the U.S. Department of Justice (U.S. DOJ)'s subpoena for patient records from University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) related to gender-affirming care. In the brief, Attorney General Bonta and the coalition argue that the subpoena violates patients' privacy, undermines states' rights to regulate the practice of medicine, exceeds U.S. DOJ's statutory authority, and aims to intimidate providers into closing their gender-affirming care programs.

"The Trump Administration continues to attack the privacy of transgender adolescents by subpoenaing confidential medical records," said Attorney General Bonta. "U.S. DOJ's flagrant overreach undermines states' rights to ensure their residents receive effective health care from providers they can trust. U.S. DOJ has severely misinterpreted federal law in a manner that harms doctors' freedoms to provide treatment their expertise deems most appropriate, across all fields of medicine, beyond just gender-affirming care. We will continue to defend Americans' privacy and their ability to access safe, high-quality care."

In June of 2025, U.S. DOJ sent UPMC an administrative subpoena, seeking information and documents relating to UPMC's provision of gender-affirming care. These records include personally identifiable information for adolescent patients and their families. In September, several current and former UPMC patients filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania asking the court to quash U.S. DOJ's subpoena. On December 24, the district court granted the Motion to Quash regarding specific portions of the subpoena seeking patient records. U.S. DOJ now intends to ask the district court to require UPMC to provide anonymized versions of patient records under the same subpoena.

In today's amicus brief, Attorney General Bonta and the coalition urge the district court to deny U.S. DOJ's request to acquire anonymized patient records from UPMC. Attorney General Bonta and the coalition argue that:

• The provision of the requested patient records would violate the privacy of UPMC patients and their families. Even if such records are "anonymized" to some degree, the ongoing and severe targeting of the transgender community makes the disclosure of patient records too great a threat to the patients' privacy.
• The subpoena infringes states' rights under the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution to regulate the practice of medicine.
• U.S. DOJ attempts to justify its subpoena by claiming the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA)'s prohibitions regarding the distribution and labeling of off-label drugs should be applied to the provision of gender-affirming care and standard communications between doctors and patients, but this interpretation contradicts both statutory language and established legal precedent.
• U.S. DOJ is pursuing the patient records for the improper purposes of intimidating providers into closing their gender-affirming care programs.

Attorney General Bonta joined multistate amicus briefs in 2025 opposing similar subpoenas attempts by U.S. DOJ against Boston Children's Hospital, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and Children's Hospital Colorado, all of which have been quashed or limited.

Joining Attorney General Bonta in submitting the amicus brief are the attorneys general of Massachusetts, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin, as well as the Governor of Pennsylvania.