Watchdog claims proof of 'harm' nonexistent in suit against Trump's ban on trans surgeries for minors
FIRST ON FOX: A Trump-aligned lawfare group filed records requests attempting to uncover the "harm" that Democrat states said was being incurred as the result of one of President Trump's Day One executive order banning sex changes for minors.
However, those states either ignored their requests or said they could not find any responsive records documenting the very harms their lawsuit warns are already unfolding.
After 15 states, the District of Columbia and Pennsylvania Democrat Gov. Josh Shapiro sued the president and his Department of Justice over the executive order on Aug. 1, America First Legal subsequently filed records requests to those states that were suing in an attempt to uncover whether the claims of injury are true and accurate. Only three states, Massachusetts, Illinois and Nevada, have provided any sort of response thus far. Furthermore, the responses that did arrive indicated there were no responsive records relating to AFL's request even though they asked for documents pertaining to precisely what the lawsuit in question alleges.
"States suing the Trump Administration appear to lack evidence of actual harm supporting their allegations," said Dan Epstein, Vice President of America First Legal. "The Trump Administration’s executive order sought to protect minors from permanent physical damage. Protecting children should not be subject to politics."
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While a nationwide preliminary injunction was issued just a few months after the issuance of Trump's executive order prohibiting physicians from performing sex change surgeries on individuals under the age of 19, according to Epstein, the plaintiffs must still must show "standing" in order for a court to provide a remedy and just because the plaintiffs filed their suit early does not mean this responsibility disappears.
"Because standing is necessary for any federal court to provide a remedy, plaintiffs must plead concrete evidence of harm in their complaint," Epstein asserted. "Here, plaintiffs' complaint failed to show an actual, traceable loss tied to the federal action, beyond merely speculative claims of harm or generalized concerns. Filing suit early does not eliminate this requirement to establish standing."
Fox News Digital reached out to the health departments and Attorneys General offices in Massachusetts, Illinois and Nevada, to request information about the documents being relied on by plaintiffs in their suit against Trump's executive order. In particular, Fox News Digital also asked if the state health departments had no responsive records, or whether there might be anywhere else that they could be kept, but again did not receive a response.
In the lawsuit challenging Trump's Executive Order 14187, which bans federal taxpayer dollars from being used to "fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another," the blue state plaintiffs allege the executive order was fostering "an atmosphere of fear and intimidation experienced by transgender individuals, their families and caregivers, and the medical professionals who seek only to provide necessary, lawful care to their patients."
AFL’s records requests sought any documents showing the states had actually experienced the harms they claim in their lawsuit against Trump’s Executive Order 14187 — including evidence of prosecutions or penalties for providers, clinic closures, reduced services, and increased medical or mental-health crises for transgender adolescents.
The group also asked for records showing higher costs for things like counseling, crisis services, or hospitalizations, worsened mental and physical health outcomes, or the states’ inability to meet legal obligations to provide medical care for minors in state custody. AFL also asked, in its final tenth point, for any internal communications specifically referencing the executive order and its alleged effects.
The only states who have gotten back to AFL's records request are Massachusetts, Illinois and Nevada. Massachusetts and Nevada said they had zero records pertaining to any of their requests, while Illinois responded that they had no records responsive to every one of AFL's requests except for their last and most broad one, which asked for records and communication mentioning the terms "Executive Order 14187," the order's formal title, or "affect shape harm."
The records handed over by Illinois' public health department included notices that agency personnel received notifying them that funds could not be used for services that violate President Trump's Executive Order 14187, as well as notices to grantees telling them they may incur new costs that support programs or activities in conflict with the executive order.
Illinois' records also showed that a program director at a nonprofit healthcare group expressed concern about an inability to register new clients because the president's directive prevented staff from asking a patient's gender identity or preferred pronouns, which were required fields in the healthcare group's client database. Because clients have to be enrolled in the database to receive HIV/AIDS services, the director feared this could impact those services.
Illinois records showed a slow-down in grant releases as well, while everyone got up to date with the new requirements of Trump's executive order.
Fox News Digital reached out repeatedly to the public health departments and Attorneys General offices for comment on AFL's accusations that their lawsuit is without evidence, but only received a response from Massachusetts' Department of Public health, which referred Fox News Digital to the state's Attorney General office.
"AFL has previously exposed other states’ lack of standing in their own respective cases against the Trump Administration. Specifically, AFL uncovered Colorado, Rhode Island, Hawaii, and Arizona’s lack of evidence supporting their claims of injury in an attempt to block the Trump Administration’s sharing of Medicaid beneficiary data with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security," a press release from the lawfare group said. "These states’ responses to AFL’s records requests repeatedly reveal a lack of standing. AFL will continue to expose baseless litigation efforts aimed at undermining the America First agenda."
Trump's Executive Order 14187 is also being challenged for alleged discrimination in a lawsuit against the Health and Human Services Department led by New York Attorney General Letitia James.