Commentary: A judge labels RFK Jr.'s attack on transgender care 'unlawful' and an act of 'cruelty'

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The Trump administration’s attack on gender-affirming care for minors bears all the hallmarks of its approach to healthcare policy.Although it purports to reflect rigorous science, it’s almost entirely fact-free — indeed, replete with misinformation and disinformation.It ignores the procedures required by law for issuing major policy directives, but relies on bluster and threats to force its targets to comply with its orders, trampling the rule of law.

It claims to be concerned with protecting the health of patients, but it puts them at risk.And it has experienced a sturdy pushback from judges.You are between a rock and a hard place.The issue is how close is the rock and how close is the hard place.— Superior Court Judge Matthew Braner, showing sympathy for hospitals in Trump’s anti-transgender crosshairsThe most recent example is a ruling Saturday from Federal Judge Mustafa T.

Kasubhai of Eugene, Ore.Kasubhai summarily invalidated a Dec.

18 declaration issued by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F.Kennedy Jr.

purporting to find that gender-affirming care for minors falls below the standard of healthcare for hospitals and threatening to terminate Medicaid and Medicare funding for those that deliver it.Kasubhai’s ruling came in a lawsuit brought by 19 states, including California, and the District of Columbia, challenging Kennedy’s declaration.

His ruling ticked all the relevant boxes.Commentary on economics and more from a Pulitzer Prize winner.

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The case, he wrote, shows how “a leader’s wanton disregard for the ...