A judge in Washington state has stopped President Donald Trump’s executive order about transgender care. Judge Lauren King, who made this decision, had earlier put a temporary hold on the order after attorneys general from Washington, Oregon, and Minnesota, all Democrats, sued the Trump administration.
This temporary hold happened a day after another judge in Baltimore also temporarily stopped the order because of a different lawsuit by families with transgender or nonbinary children. These temporary stops are just the beginning of a longer battle to cancel the executive order.
Newsweek tried to get comments via email from the offices of Attorney General Pam Bondi and Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown on Monday.
On January 28, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order called “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation.” This order stops the use of certain hormones and surgeries that help align a person’s physical appearance with their gender identity if it differs from their sex at birth. It also cuts federal funding to doctors who provide these treatments to transgender minors.
On February 16, Judge King put a preliminary injunction on Trump’s executive order. In her decision, she said the order was unconstitutional for several reasons. She mentioned that stopping federal funding oversteps the President’s authority and that making it a crime for doctors to provide gender realignment treatment to minors is also unconstitutional because it exceeds the President’s powers.
She also said the order violates the Fifth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, which stops the federal government from treating people differently based on sex or transgender status without a good reason.
After Judge King’s initial temporary hold, Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown tweeted on February 14, calling it a big win for the youth, transgender community, parents, and healthcare providers in Washington. He praised his team for their hard work in preparing the lawsuit, which included over 100 statements from people affected by the order.
Now that Judge King has moved from a temporary hold to a preliminary injunction, her decision can be appealed. The Trump administration is expected to appeal to a federal circuit court, and the case might go to the U.S. Supreme Court, especially since several states are involved.
