DOJ fires warning shot at Letitia James over transgender treatments for minors

FIRST ON FOX: The Department of Justice is warning New York Attorney General Letitia James to back away from her fight with NYU Langone Health over its decision to stop providing certain transgender treatments to minors, arguing the law does not require the hospital to offer the treatments.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a letter Wednesday obtained by Fox News Digital that the DOJ disagreed with James' determination that NYU Langone's policy was discriminatory. Blanche warned the department would defend the hospital in litigation if James moved forward with suing, threatening a legal fight over the state's authority over the hospital and medical discretion when it comes to gender-related treatments.

Blanche's letter comes after James' office recently said it would take "further action" against NYU Langone, alleging it was violating a state anti-discrimination law. That law, Blanche said, "prohibits discrimination based on, among other things, sex, gender identity, and disability" and was not applicable to the hospital's transgender treatment program.

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"NYU Langone's exercise of its sound discretion to not provide such services and procedures does not constitute discrimination on any of these grounds," the deputy attorney general said.

NYU Langone had made the decision last month to stop its Transgender Youth Health Program in the face of threats from the federal government that the hospital would lose funding.

"Given the recent departure of our medical director, coupled with the current regulatory environment, we made the difficult decision to discontinue our Transgender Youth Health Program," spokesman Steve Ritea had said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital. "We are committed to helping patients in our care manage this change. This does not impact our pediatric mental health care programs, which will continue."

James had responded to NYU Langone's move by warning she would take legal action and gave the hospital 10 days to reinstate its program.

"NYU Langone's change in policy is self-imposed; there has been no change in federal law to require the cessation of medically necessary transgender healthcare," James had written.

The program offered, among its treatments, hormone therapy for minors, such as puberty blockers. Blanche said the hospital has also confirmed to the federal government that it does not offer, in his words, "sex-rejecting procedures" to minors.

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Blanche said the DOJ's position was supported by the Supreme Court's ruling last year in United States v. Skrmetti that upheld Tennessee’s ban on certain transgender medical care for minors.

"Because NYU Langone's policy turns on diagnosis rather than gender identity—and thus allows transgender minors to access puberty blockers and hormones to treat conditions other than gender dysphoria—there is, as the Supreme Court has said, a ''lack of identity' between transgender status and the excluded medical diagnoses,'" Blanche wrote.

Fox News Digital reached out to James' office for comment on the DOJ's warning.