Post by ck4829 on Jan 2, 2017 12:14:08 GMT
Judge blocks rule against anti-trans health care discrimination
A federal judge in Texas with a history of anti-LGBT rulings issued an order Saturday blocking the Obama administration from enforcing the Affordable Care Act to prohibit discrimination in health care against transgender people and women who have had abortions.
In a 46-page decision, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor, an appointee of George W. Bush, issued a preliminary injunction against the rule on the basis it violates the Administrative Procedure Act “by contradicting existing law and exceeding statutory authority” and likely violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act as applied to the plaintiffs, who are religious-affiliated medical providers challenging the regulation.
“The agency’s six-year delay in issuing the Rule strengthens the Court’s conclusion that the delay imposed by the injunction would work no significant harm on Defendants,” O’Connor writes. “The injunction would merely maintain the status quo — allowing HHS to prohibit sex discrimination in healthcare services as defined by Title IX and incorporated by Section 1557. If the Rule is invalid, it will be set aside in its entirety and the public interest will be served by the injunction. But even if the Rule is valid, the injunction will merely delay its implementation, pending final review on the merits.”
Defying the broadly accepted interpretation in the courts of “sex” to include transgender people, O’Connor writes Congress couldn’t have meant to include transgender people by barring gender discrimination in the Affordable Care Act because lawmakers spelled out both “sex” and “gender identity” as protected classes in the Matthew Shepard & James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act and the Violence Against Women Act.
www.washingtonblade.com/2016/12/31/judge-blocks-rule-barring-anti-trans-health-care-discrimination/
A federal judge in Texas with a history of anti-LGBT rulings issued an order Saturday blocking the Obama administration from enforcing the Affordable Care Act to prohibit discrimination in health care against transgender people and women who have had abortions.
In a 46-page decision, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor, an appointee of George W. Bush, issued a preliminary injunction against the rule on the basis it violates the Administrative Procedure Act “by contradicting existing law and exceeding statutory authority” and likely violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act as applied to the plaintiffs, who are religious-affiliated medical providers challenging the regulation.
“The agency’s six-year delay in issuing the Rule strengthens the Court’s conclusion that the delay imposed by the injunction would work no significant harm on Defendants,” O’Connor writes. “The injunction would merely maintain the status quo — allowing HHS to prohibit sex discrimination in healthcare services as defined by Title IX and incorporated by Section 1557. If the Rule is invalid, it will be set aside in its entirety and the public interest will be served by the injunction. But even if the Rule is valid, the injunction will merely delay its implementation, pending final review on the merits.”
Defying the broadly accepted interpretation in the courts of “sex” to include transgender people, O’Connor writes Congress couldn’t have meant to include transgender people by barring gender discrimination in the Affordable Care Act because lawmakers spelled out both “sex” and “gender identity” as protected classes in the Matthew Shepard & James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act and the Violence Against Women Act.
www.washingtonblade.com/2016/12/31/judge-blocks-rule-barring-anti-trans-health-care-discrimination/