By Nate Raymond
Jan 13 (Reuters) – Twelve Democratic state attorneys general sued on Tuesday seeking to block the Trump administration from withholding hundreds of billions of dollars in funding from them, hospitals and universities unless they comply with new conditions they say would force them to discriminate against transgender Americans.
The state attorneys general, including from New York and California, in the lawsuit challenged conditions U.S. health agencies imposed on grants after Republican President Donald Trump signed an executive order last year instructing them to end the funding of “gender ideology.” The suit was filed in federal court in Providence, Rhode Island.
That order directed the government to recognize only two sexes – male and female – and sought to undo what it described as the “misapplication” of laws prohibiting sex discrimination to protect transgender people by the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden.
The states say the policy applies retroactively rather than only to new grants, exposing funding recipients to potential grant terminations, repayment demands, and civil and criminal penalties.
“This policy threatens healthcare for families, life-saving research, and education programs that help young people thrive in favor of denying the dignity and existence of transgender people,” New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat who is leading the lawsuit, said in a statement.
The Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit alleges that HHS under the leadership of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has sought to shoehorn Trump’s executive order into Title IX — the landmark civil rights law barring sex discrimination in federally funded education programs — by imposing retroactive conditions on grants.
Agencies within HHS did so by imposing conditions on grants that would require recipients to certify compliance with Title IX protections, which were characterized as “including the requirements” of Trump’s executive order.
The agencies that have adopted the funding condition in recent months include the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the National Institutes of Health.
The lawsuit argues HHS lacks the authority to impose those conditions, has infringed on Congress’ power over spending under the U.S. Constitution, and has not provided a reasoned explanation for the change in how it interprets Title IX.
Other states included in the case were Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Bill Berkrot)
