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 District Court Judge Amy Clark Meachum imposed a statewide temporary
injunction on investigations that Abbott ordered the Department of
Family Protective Services (DFPS) to carry out, saying the probes
endangered children and their families.
The ruling marked a victory for LGBTQ groups, medical professionals
and civil liberties advocates opposing moves by conservative
politicians in dozens of states to criminalize the provision of
gender-transitioning treatments for trans youth.
Critics of such proposals have accused Republicans of seizing on
issues surrounding gender identity as a wedge issue in the run-up to
November's mid-term congressional elections, with Republicans keen
to try and retake the majority in both the U.S. Senate and House of
Representatives.
The injunction issued Friday in Texas is to remain in place until it
is fully litigated and settled by a judgment or other means. Meachum
scheduled a trial to start July 11.
In her decision following a seven-hour hearing, Meachum said Abbott
had overreached.
“The governor's directive was given the effect of a new law or a new
agency rule, despite no new legislation,” Meachum said, saying the
actions of the governor and the DFPS commissioner violated
"separation of powers by impermissibly encroaching into the
legislative domain.”
Abbott's February directive called on doctors, nurses and teachers
to report such treatment or face criminal penalties.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Lambda Legal lawsuit
challenged Abbott's order on behalf of the family of a 16-year-old
transgender girl targeted for investigation.
The child has taken puberty-delaying medications and hormone
therapy. Her mother is a DFPS employee and was put on paid
administrative leave after asking what Abbott's directive would mean
for her family.
Meachum last week temporarily blocked a probe of the teen's parents.
At Friday's hearing, she approved a request to go one step further,
stopping the probes statewide.
'IRREPARABLE INJURY'
Meachum said the plight of the 16-year-old and her parents, whose
names were withheld in the lawsuit, was an example of the
"irreparable injury" that would be caused unless the investigations
were stopped, given the stigma attached to being the targets of a
child abuse investigation, as well as the loss of livelihood.
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Representing the state, assistant attorney
general Courtney Corbello argued that
gender-transitioning procedures constituted
child abuse, saying they involved administering
controlled substances that physically and
mentally impaired children.
The position was countered by doctors,
testifying as expert witnesses, who said
procedures like puberty blockers and hormone
therapy were safe, reversible medical
treatments.
Andrea Dalhouse, a parent of a transgender
child, said she felt trapped between activists
who saw "trans medicine" as "blissful,"
pharmaceutical companies selling products, and
Texas politicians like Abbott who wanted
procedures banned.
"It's shut down the possibility of having a
civil and compassionate discussion about the
real science that we don't have yet," said
Dalhouse, the mother of a trans-identifying
17-year-old. "We don't know, if we're jumping
all these kids on hormones and lopping off body
parts, what this means longterm."
Over 60 major U.S. businesses, including Apple
Inc and Johnson & Johnson, signed their names to
an advertisement that ran in Texas on Friday
opposing Abbott's directive, saying
"discrimination is bad for business."
The DFPS has opened nine child welfare inquiries
under Abbott's directive, a spokesman said.
Abbott, a Republican running for a third term in
office, issued the directive based on the Feb.
18 non-binding legal opinion from Texas Attorney
General Ken Paxton days before a Texas primary
election that Abbott easily won.
The court heard from a DFPS supervisor who said
that under the directive child abuse inspectors
were told they had to investigate parents of
transgender children, even if they did not think
abuse had occurred.
 "We had to be investigating these cases," Randa
Mulanax testified, adding that she has handed in
her resignation letter because she believed the
directive was "unethical."
(Reporting by Andrew Hay in Taos, N.M.Editing by
Donna Bryson, Matthew Lewis, Rosalba O'Brien,
Aurora Ellis and Leslie Adler)
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