A federal judge has ruled that the White House budget office didn’t have the power to order agencies to take down web pages that included information about transgender issues.
The Office of Management and Budget said it was carrying out President Trump’s “Defending Women” executive order, but Judge John Bates, a George W. Bush appointee to the court in Washington, ruled overnight Wednesday that Mr. Trump never specifically gave OMB that power.
And he said OMB doesn’t have independent powers in the law to do it either, so the agency’s action “exceeded its statutory authority.”
“This case involves government officials acting first and thinking later,” he wrote.
His ruling erases OMB’s guidance to agencies and also deletes a Health and Human Services Department policy that followed OMB’s directives.
And, he ruled, HHS’ decision to take down websites as a result of that guidance was also wrong.
Judge Bates said the agencies didn’t provide any “reasoned decisionmaking” to back up their moves, and he said the executive order isn’t enough justification either.
He ruled that people were relying on the expunged websites, and they had a right to a more reasoned decision before they were taken down. Not going through that process violated the Administrative Procedure Act, he said.
“The defendants’ actions were ill-conceived from the beginning,” he said.
Judge Bates had previously issued a restraining order demanding that the pages be restored. His ruling Wednesday is a final decision striking down the policies that led to the website changes.
HHS, in response to the executive order and OMB guidance, had torn up websites.
In some instances, that meant editing out phrases and words such as “pregnant people” or “gender.” Often, it meant erasing whole pages that included the trigger words.
Gone were a “Getting Tested for HIV” fact sheet and guidelines for administering the mpox vaccine. The Food and Drug Administration erased YouTube videos on sexually transmitted infections and ovarian cancer.
