Letitia James

New York Attorney General Letitia James and a coalition of state attorneys general have filed a federal lawsuit challenging a new Department of Health and Human Services policy that ties billions of dollars in health, education and research grants to compliance with President Donald Trump’s January 2025 executive order on sex- and gender-related treatments. The HHS declaration—rolled out last month under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—warns that doctors who provide puberty blockers, hormone therapy or gender surgeries to minors could be excluded from Medicare and Medicaid and that noncompliant states, universities and hospitals risk grant termination, repayment of funds already spent, and potential civil or criminal penalties. The AGs argue HHS lacks statutory authority to impose these sweeping conditions, accuse the administration of effectively rewriting federal law by executive fiat, and say the policy conflicts with state anti-discrimination protections for transgender people while offering no clear definition of what 'compliance' requires. They are asking the court to strike down the policy and block HHS from enforcing it so that states and institutions can keep receiving federal money without changing existing transgender-related policies. The case sets up a major clash over federal leverage, state sovereignty and transgender health care that could reverberate through Medicaid participation, academic research funding and civil-rights enforcement nationwide.