The Department of Justice intervened to protect Biden appointee, assistant secretary for health Dr. Rachel Levine, from discovery in Alabama litigation relating to its ban on transgender sex change procedures for minors.
Alabama's attorney general – Steve Marshall – is defending litigation against an Alabama law that made it a felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, to prescribe puberty blockers or hormones to transgender children for a sex change.
The Department of Justice requested to be a party in a lawsuit against the Alabama law blocking sex changes for minors, making some federal agencies considered experts on the topic, subject to discovery. Discovery is a procedure during litigation in which parties present and request evidence before trial.
Marshall then requested Levine's records, believing she is one of the primary voices in the federal government – and relevantly in the Health and Human Services Department – who is advocating for sex changes in children with gender dysphoria.
"It is not hyperbole to say that Admiral Levine is the leading public-facing official in the United States government when it comes to transitioning treatments for minors," the AG said in a court filing. It proceeded to mention how Levine "routinely endorses puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones" for minors, lectures physicians discussing the treatments, and oversees the division at HHS that published the federal guidance endorsing sex changes for minors.
"So if one were putting together a list of potential custodians at HHS concerning transitioning treatment for minors, Levine would be at the top. Levine obviously has communications and documents relevant to this litigation. Yet when Defendants requested that Levine be made a custodian, the United States refused," the AG said.
The DOJ then tried to block the request, and offered Levine's former subordinate instead for discovery and also offered a FOIA response with unrelated search terms, the filing continued.
"The United States protested that Admiral Levine, as Assistant Secretary for Health, ‘is not herself conducting studies related to gender-affirming care nor is she employed at HHS as a researcher,’" the filing said.
"Then, even more oddly, the United States said that rather than make Levine a custodian, it would send Defendants a copy of its responses to an unrelated third-party FOIA request seeking different information using different search terms over a different timespan related to Levine's office."
Fox News Digital reported Levine praised a gender clinic – Identity Alaska – which not only advocates for biological sex revisionism, including referring to mothers as "egg-producers" –, but offers hormones to minors.
The DOJ claimed the law "denies necessary medical care to children based solely on who they are," and was therefore discriminatory against trans-identified youth.
The DOJ was contacted for comment and did not immediately respond.
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Fox News' Stephen Sorace contributed to this report.
