Judge Extends Block on Trump’s Funding Halt for Youth Transgender Procedures

U.S. District Judge Lauren King said the plaintiffs were likely to succeed in their claim that the order usurps Congress’s power to appropriate funds.

President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House on Feb. 26, 2025. Jim Watson/AFP via Getty

A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on Feb. 28, extending the block on President Donald Trump’s executive order that seeks to halt funding for transgender procedures for youth under 19.

This injunction followed a temporary restraining order that U.S. District Judge Lauren King issued on Feb. 14 in response to a lawsuit filed by the attorneys general of Washington, Minnesota, Oregon, and Colorado. Three doctors also joined as plaintiffs.

In Friday’s order, King said the plaintiffs have demonstrated that they are likely to succeed on the merits of their claim that Trump’s order violates the Constitution’s separation of powers by attempting to usurp Congress’s power in appropriating federal funds.

“The Court’s holding here is not about the policy goals that President Trump seeks to advance; rather, it is about reaffirming the structural integrity of the Constitution by ensuring that executive action respects congressional authority,” the judge stated.

King said the plaintiffs have also shown a likelihood of success in their claim that the order violates the Fifth Amendment’s right to equal protection, which prohibits the federal government from “treating people differently based on sex or transgender status.”

The judge said the plaintiffs lacked standing to challenge the order’s provision on “protections against female genital mutilation,” as she noted that all four states were already subject to laws criminalizing female genital mutilation.

Washington Attorney General Nick Brown issued a statement praising the judge for upholding the rule of law and accused Trump of disregarding the U.S. Constitution.

In a post on the social media platform X, Brown said the injunction would allow young transgender Washingtonians access to “needed life-saving care” and enable medical institutions in the state to operate “without federal government discrimination or overreach.”

The Epoch Times reached out to the White House for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

Trump signed the “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation” executive order after taking office on Jan. 20. It instructed the head of each agency that provides research and education grants to medical institutions to take appropriate steps to ensure that institutions receiving these grants “end the chemical and surgical mutilation of children.”

The order states that the U.S. government “will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another,” and vows to “rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures.”

“Across the country today, medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child’s sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions,” the order stated. “This dangerous trend will be a stain on our Nation’s history, and it must end.”

Under the order, “chemical and surgical mutilation” was defined as the use of puberty blockers, the use of sex hormones, and surgical procedures “that attempt to transform an individual’s physical appearance to align with an identity that differs from his or her sex.”

The plaintiffs filed the lawsuit on Feb. 7, arguing that the president’s order is unconstitutional and accusing the Trump administration of discrimination.

“The Order facially discriminates against transgender and gender-diverse people by stigmatizing, defunding, and purporting to criminalize health care that is lawful, state-regulated, medically appropriate and necessary, and specific to their health needs, while the same care is provided to cisgender people for other purposes,” they stated.

Another federal judge in Maryland issued a temporary restraining order on Feb. 13, blocking portions of Trump’s executive orders, including the one titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,”—which recognizes only two sexes, male and female—following a legal challenge filed by advocacy groups.

Sam Dorman contributed to this report.