Washington state Attorney General Nick Brown speaks at a press conference on Feb. 7, 2025 where he announced a lawsuit against President Trump’s executive order that seeks to curtail federal support for health care services provided to transgender youth. (Photo by Jake Goldstein-Street/Washington State Standard)
A judge has denied the Washington attorney general’s attempt to hold the Trump administration in contempt over allegations it flouted a court order in a case involving hospital grant funding for gender-affirming care.
The attorney general’s office argued President Donald Trump overstepped in canceling a grant to Seattle Children’s Hospital despite a court order blocking Trump’s attempt to halt federal funding for institutions that provide gender-affirming care for transgender youth.
At the time of the cancellation, U.S. District Court Judge Lauren King’s temporary restraining order in the case was active. Later the same day, King indefinitely blocked Trump’s executive order with a preliminary injunction.
The state had asked King to hold the administration in contempt and award attorney’s fees. She declined to do so on Monday.
The court rulings came in response to a lawsuit Washington filed along with Oregon, Minnesota and Colorado. King’s injunction covers the four states.
In court filings, the Justice Department argued the National Institutes of Health did not violate the judge’s orders because the research funded by the grant doesn’t provide gender-affirming care itself, like puberty blockers, hormone therapy or surgery. The federal government’s attorneys said NIH acted within its authority in revoking the funding.
“Defendants now claim they can enforce those Orders, as long as they don’t explicitly identify them by name and pretend their actions — which just happen to be what the Orders would require — are not based on them,” William McGinty, of the state attorney general’s office, countered in court papers.
NIH canceled the research grant in question because it “no longer effectuates agency priorities,” according to a letter to researchers. The agency said it was stripping Seattle Children’s of more than $200,000, potentially forcing the hospital to pay back grant money already spent.
On March 4, NIH told the hospital it was providing $40,000 to support “patient safety” and help close out the project, raising concerns the cancellation was tied to Trump’s executive order.
Still, King ruled it was unclear whether the executive order directly led NIH to nix the funding. She noted the feds didn’t revoke other Seattle Children’s grants.
The judge found the grant cancellation didn’t rise “to the level of contempt,” while castigating the Department of Justice’s “unreasonable and self-serving interpretation of the Court’s orders.”
“A mere possibility that an action violates a court order is not enough to establish contempt,” King wrote in her order Monday afternoon. “Plaintiffs must instead provide clear and convincing evidence. Here, they have not done so.”
Instead of contempt, King ordered the Trump administration to expedite the sharing of documents through the legal process known as discovery.
The attorney general claimed this was one of many grants similarly defunded.
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