Texas district judge overturns Biden rule on expanded abortion privacy protections
District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Amarillo ruled the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) acted unlawfully when it expanded the scope of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) privacy law last April.
Kacsmaryk wrote that the Biden administration 'invoked HIPAA as a shield against abortion-restrictive states.' He said the rule was written to protect 'politically preferred procedures' like abortion and gender transitions but that HIPAA doesn't give HHS the ability to 'distinguish between types of health information to accomplish political ends.'
'Thus, HHS lacks the authority to issue regulations that enact heightened protections for information about politically favored procedures,' he wrote.
Such action should only be taken by Congress, he wrote, especially because the issues are of major political significance.
'The 2024 rule creates special rules for information about these politically favored procedures that implicate fundamental and hotly debated questions,' he wrote.
The rule prohibits health care providers and insurers from giving information about a legal abortion to state law enforcement authorities who are seeking to punish someone in connection with that abortion.
The 2024 rule came in the wake of concerns that patients who travel to clinics for legal abortion or reproductive care will eventually have their records sought following the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Late last year, Kacsmaryk temporarily blocked HHS from enforcing the rule against the Texas doctor who had brought the lawsuit. Carmen Purl, a Texas physician, sued to declare the rule 'arbitrary and capricious' and 'in excess of statutory authority,' in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act.
Wednesday's decision blocks the rule nationwide.
Kacsmaryk, who was appointed by President Trump in his first term, has become a go-to judge for blocking Biden-era rules nationwide.
Texas has filed a separate lawsuit challenging the rule, which is pending in federal court in Lubbock. HHS in a court filing last month said the Trump administration is evaluating its position in this case.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
6 minutes ago
- New York Post
Trump's DC takeover is just Step 1 — dysfunctional capital needs a bigger fix
Last week President Donald Trump declared war on crime in Washington, DC, when he sent in the National Guard and federalized the district's police force for the 30-day period allowable under the DC Home Rule Act. Trump's motives were good: He's right that it's shameful our national capital has become one of our most dangerous cities. He's also right that DC's crime epidemic hurts America's competitiveness and prestige. But the president's month-long law enforcement takeover won't fix that problem — because the problem is not, at its core, bad law enforcement. It's the fact that DC's government has for decades now shown itself incapable of even the most basic level of public administration. Blame it, too, on Congress, which transferred control over the district to the city's own elected government in the Home Rule Act of 1973 — but has refused to admit its mistake and reverse course. Both the Senate and the House of Representatives remain aloof from the problems they created, even as federal staffers, visitors and on occasion their own members are routinely harassed and attacked by criminals on the streets and in their homes. But the US Constitution stipulates that DC is a national public resource, not a self-governing city like any other. Under the Constitution, it is Congress's responsibility to competently administrate it — and Congress has abdicated that responsibility. When the 30-day takeover period is up (assuming Congress does not renew his privileges), Trump will turn the keys back over to a capital city government that can't staff a police force, can't keep young violent offenders off the streets and can't run a functioning crime lab. District officials can't claim to have reduced crime without cooking the books, and can't protect visiting diplomats from being shot And they're not just failing at law enforcement: DC can't keep its public schools out of the basement of national performance rankings, and can't prevent huge homeless encampments from forming while thousands of district-owned public housing units go unoccupied. The only possible solution to such a crisis of mismanagement is to overturn the law that gave home rule to DC and start over from scratch. And if President Trump is serious about tackling the district's dysfunction, he should do just that. First, the president should build up some goodwill by ending his police federalization and troop occupation, preferably earlier than planned. No need to make excuses; he can simply explain that he's come to realize DC's dysfunction runs far deeper than anything a few extra officers on the streets can solve. Then he and Republican leadership should begin meeting with members of Congress on both sides of the aisle to generate support for Home Rule repeal. While Trump seems to think the entire district is dead set against him, this is incorrect: Many residents, while no fans of the president, are fed up with not being able to safely walk their dogs at night. Longtime Democratic members of Congress have personally experienced the city's dangers for many years, and they all know the ordeal of their colleague Angie Craig (D-Minn.), who was assaulted in her apartment building's elevator just two years ago. If Trump were to approach this issue firmly but collaboratively, he would find the water warmer than he thinks. Legally, the argument is not a hard sell. Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution says that Congress shall have 'exclusive legislation in all Cases whatsoever' over the federal district. Congress has given a 50-year trial to the notion of delegating its power to the people of DC, and that trial has unequivocally failed to produce a district that serves the interests of the federal government, the American people, or the residents themselves. Therefore, we should return to rule by Congress, as the Constitution mandates. Doing so would require a simple act of Congress, passed by both parties, that overturns the 1973 law and dismisses DC's elected representatives. A third section of the new law should establish a congressional committee to appoint exemplary city managers from cities around United States to reconstitute a competent DC government. In many American cities, like Madison, Wis., Phoenix, Ariz., and Wichita, Kan., elected officials appoint professional administrators to oversee day-to-day municipal operations. Washington, DC, should do the same — with Congress taking ultimate responsibility. Some on the left will bemoan the reversal of Home Rule as yet another federal assault on our democracy. But the District of Columbia was never intended by the Founders to be a self-governing state. It was intended to serve the interests of the country as a whole, by providing a safe and orderly place for public administration. Returning DC's governing prerogative to the people of America, not the district itself, will take us one step closer to being the republic the Founders envisioned. John Masko is a journalist specializing in business and international politics.
The Hill
6 minutes ago
- The Hill
Klobuchar weighs in on deepfake video of her talking about Sydney Sweeney
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) addressed the deepfake video that went viral last month of the senator's likeness offering a 'vulgar and absurd critique' of actress Sydney Sweeney's 'great jeans' ad campaign. In a New York Times op-ed, the moderate Democrat called on Congress to pass legislation to protect Americans from the harms of deepfakes, saying the issue requires urgent action amid the proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. 'I learned that lesson in a visceral way over the last month when a fake video of me — opining on, of all things, the actress Sydney Sweeney's jeans — went viral,' she wrote in the op-ed. Klobuchar said after she co-led a hearing on data privacy last month, she noticed 'a clip of me from that hearing circulating widely on X, to the tune of more than a million views,' which the senator then clicked on to watch. 'That's when I heard my voice — but certainly not me — spewing a vulgar and absurd critique of an ad campaign for jeans featuring Sydney Sweeney,' she said, referring to the controversial American Eagle advertisement that touted the actress's 'great jeans.' Klobuchar explained the AI deepfake featured her using derogatory phrases and 'lamenting that Democrats were 'too fat to wear jeans or too ugly to go outside.'' 'Though I could immediately tell that someone used footage from the hearing to make a deepfake, there was no getting around the fact that it looked and sounded very real,' she said. Klobuchar said when the clip spread to other platforms, TikTok took it down, and Meta labeled the video as artificial intelligence. But she said the social platform X 'refused to take it down or label it.' 'X's response was that I should try to get a 'Community Note' to say it was a fake, something the company would not help add,' she added. The Hill has reached out to X for comment. Klobuchar noted that her experience 'does not in any way represent the gravest threat posed by deepfakes' and pointed to other recent examples, including when someone used AI to pretend to be Secretary of State Marco Rubio and contacted various high-level government officials. President Trump in May signed into law a bill that Klobuchar pushed for, cracking down on so-called deepfake revenge porn — or sexually explicit AI images and videos that are posted without the victim's consent. Klobuchar is calling now for Congress to pass her bipartisan 'No Fakes Act,' which 'would give people the right to demand that social media companies remove deepfakes of their voice and likeness, while making exceptions for speech protected by the First Amendment,' she said. 'In the United States, and within the bounds of our Constitution, we must put in place common-sense safeguards for artificial intelligence. They must at least include labeling requirements for content that is substantially generated by A.I.,' she wrote in the op-ed. She warned that the country is 'at just the tip of the iceberg,' noting, 'The internet has an endless appetite for flashy, controversial content that stokes anger. The people who create these videos aren't going to stop at Sydney Sweeney's jeans.' 'We can love the technology and we can use the technology, but we can't cede all the power over our own images and our privacy,' she wrote. 'It is time for members of Congress to stand up for their constituents, stop currying favor with the tech companies and set the record straight. In a democracy, we do that by enacting laws. And it is long past time to pass one.'
Yahoo
34 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Public Health Workers Criticize RFK Jr. After CDC Shooting
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks at an event at the USDA Whitten Building on Aug. 4, 2025. Credit - Tom Williams—CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images More than 750 public health workers sent a letter to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday, urging him to 'stop spreading inaccurate health information' and guarantee employees' safety, in the wake of a shooting at the headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) earlier this month. The letter—signed by both named and anonymous current and former staffers at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), CDC, and National Institutes of Health who noted they signed the letter in their 'own personal capacities'—said the attack on the CDC's headquarters in Atlanta on Aug. 8 'was not random.' 'The attack came amid growing mistrust in public institutions, driven by politicized rhetoric that has turned public health professionals from trusted experts into targets of villainization—and now, violence,' public health workers said in the letter, which was also addressed to members of Congress. 'CDC is a public health leader in America's defense against health threats at home and abroad. When a federal health agency is under attack, America's health is under attack. When the federal workforce is not safe, America is not safe.' The public health workers went on to accuse Kennedy, a prominent vaccine skeptic, of being 'complicit in dismantling America's public health infrastructure and endangering the nation's health by repeatedly spreading inaccurate health information.' They cited several statements and actions that Kennedy has made in recent months, pointing to his claim that mRNA vaccines 'fail to protect effectively' against upper respiratory infections such as COVID-19—despite years of research showing that the shots are both safe and effective—and his announcement that HHS would be winding down mRNA vaccine development. They also condemned his decision to remove all the experts from a critical vaccine advisory committee. And they said some of Kennedy's past comments—such as claiming that there is a 'cesspool of corruption at CDC'—were 'sowing public mistrust' in the health agency. Read more: Trump Administration to Wind Down mRNA Vaccine Development The public health workers expressed their wish to honor police officer David Rose, who was killed while responding to the attack on the CDC headquarters in August. HHS said in a statement to TIME that Kennedy 'is standing firmly with CDC employees—both on the ground and across every center—ensuring their safety and well-being remain a top priority.' The agency added that, after the shooting earlier this month, Kennedy traveled to Atlanta and called the CDC 'a shining star' among the world's health agencies. 'For the first time in its 70-year history, the mission of HHS is truly resonating with the American people—driven by President Trump and Secretary Kennedy's bold commitment to Make America Healthy Again,' HHS said. 'Any attempt to conflate widely supported public health reforms with the violence of a suicidal mass shooter is an attempt to politicize a tragedy.' Law enforcement officials said they found evidence that the suspect in the August shooting, who they identified as Patrick Joseph White of Georgia, blamed the COVID-19 vaccine for his health ailments. White was found dead at the scene, and authorities later said that he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. CDC Director Susan Monarez noted the dangers posed by misinformation in a staff meeting in the wake of the attack. 'We know that misinformation can be dangerous,' she said, according to NBC News. 'Not only to health, but to those that trust us and those we want to trust. We need to rebuild the trust together.' The day after the shooting, Kennedy expressed his condolences to Rose's family in a post on X. 'We know how shaken our public health colleagues feel today. No one should face violence while working to protect the health of others,' he said. 'We are actively supporting CDC staff on the ground and across the agency. Public health workers show up every day with purpose—even in moments of grief and uncertainty. We honor their service. We stand with them. And we remain united in our mission to protect and improve the health of every American.' Kennedy was one of President Donald Trump's most controversial Cabinet nominees, and faced heated questioning by Senators during his confirmation hearings. He has drawn outrage from the medical establishment in the past for spreading disinformation, including repeating the debunked claim that vaccines cause autism. In their letter, public health workers claimed Kennedy's 'dangerous and deceitful statements and actions have contributed to the harassment and violence experienced by CDC staff.' They implored him to take three steps by Sept. 2 to 'uphold his pledge to safeguard the health of the American public,' including asking him to 'stop spreading inaccurate health information,' particularly regarding vaccines, infectious disease transmission, and the country's public health institutions. They also urged him to affirm the scientific integrity of the CDC and guarantee the safety of HHS employees, such as through emergency procedures and alerts. 'The deliberate destruction of trust in America's public health workforce puts lives at risk,' they wrote in the letter. 'We urge you to act in the best interest of the American people—your friends, your families, and yourselves.' Contact us at letters@
