An attack on the LGBTQ health by Trump just got struck down on Wednesday.
From LGBTQNation:
A federal court has struck down a Trump administration rule that allowed health care providers to refuse to treat patients if they cite a sincerely held religious belief. The ACLU and the NYCLU argued on behalf of two public health organizations that a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) rule violated federal law.
This past May, HHS issued a rule allowing health care workers to refuse to provide service if they cite their religious beliefs and punishing health care organizations that don’t allow their workers adequate “religious freedom.” LGBTQ organizations balked at the rule change since queer and transgender people are likely to be on the receiving end of religion-based discrimination.
Reproductive freedom and public health organizations also sounded the alarm about the rule. Now Judge Paul Engelmayer of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has ruled against HHS, saying that the department overstepped its authority in issuing the rule, which would’ve gone into effect on November 22.
The rule, he wrote, violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act because it would allow workplace discrimination and also violates the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, an anti-patient dumping law. Engelmayer also noted that HHS couldn’t show why the rule was needed to protect religious freedom, calling the rule “a classic solution in search of a problem.”
In a 147-page decision vacating the rule in full, U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer wrote that HHS lacked the rule making authority to implement significant portions of the rule’s provisions and could not terminate a recipient’s federal funding in response to violations of the rule. Engelmayer also called the government’s credibility into question, saying its stated rationale for instituting the rule was objectively false.
“The Court’s finding that the Rule was promulgated arbitrarily and capriciously calls into question the validity and integrity of the rule making venture itself,” the decision said. “Indeed, the Court has found that HHS’s stated justification for undertaking rule making in the first place—a purported ‘significant increase’ in civilian complaints relating to the Conscience Provisions—was factually untrue.”
The court found that HHS failed to illustrate even a “rational connection” between its explanation for the rule and the facts presented to the court.
In other words, Justice Engelmayer said the Trump Administration lied about the rationale for creating the rule because its claim about a huge increase of complaints with regards to the need for "conscience protections" was simply not true. I guess the Trump Administration couldn't say its actual rationale for this ridiculous rule - to appease Trump's supporters in the religious right and the anti-LGBTQ industry.
When the rule was announced in May, it was the subject of a huge amount of controversy. Its implementation was supposed to take place in July but the number of lawsuits opposing it caused a delay. In September, court filings said that the Trump Administration was in fact overinflating the number of complaints by healthcare providers claiming that their personal beliefs were being violated. As we can see, the court agreed..
While this is a wonderful victory, I would advise my LGBTQ brothers and sisters keep their eyes open. The conscience rule was the brainchild of long-time anti-LGBTQ activist Roger Severino. Severino's wife, Carrie, heads a dark monied group, the Judicial Crisis Network, whose goal is to put judges on the bench who will rule the way conservatives want.
If the Trump Administration appeals Wednesday's ruling, will it go in front of one of Carrie Severino's bought-and-paid for judges?
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