A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to restore pro-gender ideology webpages after they were deleted in the wake of President Trump’s executive order banning government agencies from promoting gender ideology, CBS News reported Tuesday.
Trump’s EO, signed on his first day in office, stated that the U.S. recognizes two sexes, male and female, and directed agencies to “remove all statements, policies, regulations, forms, communications, or other internal and external messages that promote or otherwise inculcate gender ideology,” as well as “cease issuing such statements, policies, regulations, forms, communications or other messages.”
Days after the president issued his order, the Office of Personnel Management issued a memorandum ordering all agencies by 5 p.m. on Jan. 31 to take down all websites, social media accounts and other public-facing media “that inculcate or promote gender ideology.” In response to the memo, the CDC and FDA took offline numerous webpages and data sets, including recommendations on how physicians should treat sexually transmitted infections and adult immunization guidance.
While the wording on some websites was adjusted to adhere to Mr. Trump’s directive, allowing them to stay online, other information, like data from the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, was removed completely.
The agency said in a banner on its main website that it was “being modified to comply with President Trump’s executive orders.”
U.S. District Judge John Bates, a George W. Bush appointee, granted a temporary restraining order sought by the left-wing nonprofit Doctors for America (originally Doctors For Obama). The activist group was founded in 2008 by Dr. Vivek Murthy, who went on to become Joe Biden’s surgeon general. Doctors For America argued that its members had used the websites for treating patients and conducting research and that the removal of the webpages violated federal law.
Bates, 78, found that the group was likely to succeed in its claim that HHS, the CDC and FDA acted unlawfully when they scrubbed transgender ideology from their public websites.
“It bears emphasizing who ultimately bears the harm of defendants’ actions: everyday Americans, and most acutely, underprivileged Americans, seeking healthcare,” he wrote. Citing declarations from two doctors filed in the case, Bates said if they “cannot provide these individuals the care they need (and deserve) within the scheduled and often limited time frame, there is a chance that some individuals will not receive treatment, including for severe, life-threatening conditions. The public thus has a strong interest in avoiding these serious injuries to the public health.”
Judge John Bates was the judge in the tragic case of Matthew Perna, the j6er who hung himself after Biden DOJ prosecutors sadistically threw the book at him for peacefully trespassing.
The judge said that after the gender ideology info was taken down, doctors were forced to look elsewhere for such material, making “their jobs harder and their treatment less effective,” but that HHS, CDC and FDA faced no burden by keeping the webpages up.
“There is nothing in either the OPM memorandum or the record, and indeed defendants proffered no information at the hearing, to suggest the restoration of the removed webpages would pose a burden on the agencies’ ability to engage in their work,” Bates wrote. “Similarly, there is no information to suggest that restoring public access would even interfere with the agencies’ ongoing efforts to conform those resources with the president’s executive orders.”
The judge ordered the agencies to restore earlier versions of their websites by 11:59 p.m. Tuesday.
Senator Mike Lee registered his disapproval of the judge’s decision on X: “These judges are waging an unprecedented assault on legitimate presidential authority, all the way down to dictating what webpages the government has,” Lee wrote. “This is absurd.”
Reacting with equal dismay, DOGE Chief Elon Musk called for Judge Bates to be fired.
“Truly absurd. Judges as website editors!?” he posted on X. “We should at least ATTEMPT to fire this junky jurist.” He added: “The notion of having a judge job for life, no matter how bad the judgments, is ridiculous! Enough is enough.”
What part of the idea that the Chief Executive officer has the authority to make rules governing the executive branch & the execution of its duties is so freaking hard to understand?
Judge shopping… As common in Sodom on Potomac as bribery and grift.
I have been commenting about this since well before the inauguration. If Trump can’t find the guts to ignore the orders of these lower courts, he will have no lasting accomplishments.
The battle for the heart and soul of America has been a long and arduous one. Those opposed to the true and faithful vision of what America can be are both resourceful, cunning and relentless.
The events that have recently unfolded have been both heartening and reassuring. The American spirit is bloodied but unbowed, everything that is worth defending is being fought for with great strength and intense vigor.
As more Americans awaken from their long slumber and realize how close they are to losing the America they love power will shift, at least for a time, from those who seek to quench America the beautiful.
The many and difficult battles to come will test the mettle of every American. A time of choosing lies ahead. This moment is just a temporary respite, a moment to consider what we have and what we can lose.