US judge blocks rule aimed to end transgender health protections

Pic/AFP

A federal judge blocked the Trump administration on Monday from enforcing a new regulation that would roll back health care protections for transgender people.

Finalised days after the Supreme Court barred sex discrimination against LGBT individuals on the job, the regulation from the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) was to have taken effect Tuesday.

Monday's preliminary injunction from US District Court Judge Frederic Block in Brooklyn bars the administration from enforcing the regulation until the case can be heard in court and decided.

Block indicated he thought the Trump administration's so-called transgender rule is invalid in light of the Supreme Court ruling in June on a case involving similar issues in the context of job discrimination.

"When the Supreme Court announces a major decision, it seems a sensible thing to pause and reflect on the decision's impact," Block wrote in his order, suggesting the agency may want to reconsider. "Since HHS has been unwilling to take that path voluntarily, the court now imposes it."

"An employer who fires an individual for being homosexual or transgender fires that person for traits or actions it would not have questioned in members of a different sex," wrote Justice Neil Gorsuch, who was nominated by Trump. The HHS rule sought to overturn Obama-era sex discrimination protections for transgender people in health care.

Aug 18
Day Trump rule would have taken effect

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