{"id":1711160,"date":"2022-10-26T06:07:14","date_gmt":"2022-10-26T10:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1711160"},"modified":"2022-10-26T07:20:03","modified_gmt":"2022-10-26T11:20:03","slug":"federal-judge-strikes-biden-dojs-bully-tactics-against-opponents-of-trans-surgeries-for-minors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/federal-judge-strikes-biden-dojs-bully-tactics-against-opponents-of-trans-surgeries-for-minors\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal Judge Strikes Biden DOJ&#8217;s Bully Tactics Against Opponents of Trans Surgeries for Minors"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ffederal-judge-strikes-biden-dojs-bully-tactics-against-opponents-of-trans-surgeries-for-minors%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1711160&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Screen-Shot-2022-10-25-at-12.13.37-PM.png\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>A federal judge in Alabama <a href=\"https:\/\/mcusercontent.com\/cf281a096a7f20fa26c87fe14\/files\/15ab59d3-be3f-21a3-f7ad-ede5834462ba\/DE_192_Opinion_Order.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">quashed<\/a> the invasive subpoena the Biden administration served on the conservative Eagle Forum and Southeast Law Institute, holding the material sought from the nonprofits fell outside the scope of discovery relevant to the Department of Justice\u2019s lawsuit challenging Alabama\u2019s law banning chemical and surgical transgender experimentation on minors. Monday\u2019s victory proves Americans can fight back against the Biden administration\u2019s weaponizing of the DOJ.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Department of Justice had subpoenaed the Eagle Forum and Southeast Law Institute in August, demanding all materials related to the nonprofits\u2019 support of the Alabama Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act (VCAP). Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey had signed VCAP into law on April 8, 2022, with the legislation banning puberty blockers, wrong-sex hormones, or surgical procedures performed on minors \u201cif the practice is performed for the purpose of attempting to alter the appearance of or affirm the minor\u2019s perception of his or her gender or sex, if that appearance or perception is inconsistent with the minor\u2019s sex.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Less than two weeks later, in <em>Eknes-Tucker v. Marshall<\/em>, four transgender-identifying children, their parents, and several others sued the governor of Alabama and other state officials, challenging the constitutionality of VCAP. The plaintiffs in the <em>Eknes-Tucker <\/em>case argued that VCAP violates the constitutional right of parents to obtain medical treatment for their children and the equal-protection rights of transgender minors. The Biden administration quickly joined the lawsuit as a plaintiff, asserting the same equal-protection argument as the children.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In May, federal Judge Liles Burke, a Donald Trump appointee, granted the plaintiffs a preliminary injunction, keeping the statute from going into effect pending resolution of the case. Alabama appealed the court\u2019s injunction to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, and a hearing is tentatively scheduled for Nov. 14, 2022.<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, however, the Department of Justice moved forward with discovery, serving at least two nonprofit groups, the Eagle Forum and the Southeast Law Institute, with invasive subpoenas demanding that the organizations provide the federal government with documents related to their efforts to push for passage of the VCAP, including communications with their members and state legislators. In total, the Biden administration sought 11 broad categories of material, spanning from Jan. 1, 2017, through the present day.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Eagle Forum and the Southeast Law Institute \u2014 neither of which were parties to the lawsuit \u2014 filed motions to quash the DOJ\u2019s subpoenas, arguing that none of the requested material was relevant to the question of the constitutionality of the VCAP, that subpoenas infringe on their First Amendment rights, and that compliance with the subpoenas would be unduly burdensome to the nonprofit organizations, which lack the staff and resources necessary to pull the requested documents.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, Judge Burke \u2014 the same judge who had enjoined enforcement of the statute \u2014 granted the motions to quash, finding the requested information outside the scoop of discovery.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe subpoenas command Eagle Forum and Southeast Law Institute to produce eleven broad categories of evidence, ranging from draft legislation, to communications with the Alabama Legislature, to polling or public opinion data, to social media postings,\u201d the court wrote. But \u201cthese materials are unlikely to reveal or lead to any information that would help resolve the fundamental issue in this case,\u201d which is the constitutionality of Alabama\u2019s VCAP, the court stressed. Thus, \u201cthe requested material has little \u2014 if any \u2014 relevance for purposes of discovery,\u201d Burke concluded. And the burden to the nonprofits, the court held, far outweighed any slight relevance possible.<\/p>\n<p>While the court could have left the matter there, Burke instead chastised the DOJ for submitting \u201coverly broad and unduly burdensome\u201d subpoenas, which the government then sought to \u201cnarrow\u201d a week before the scheduled hearing on the Eagle Forum and Southeast Law Institute\u2019s fully briefed motion to quash. And after putting the nonprofits under the burden of fighting the original subpoenas, the DOJ claimed it now only sought \u201cany medical studies or literature referenced in\u201d the act\u2019s legislative findings. That request, however, was outside the scope of the original subpoenas, so the court quashed the subpoenas in total.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Eagle Forum celebrated this week\u2019s victory in a press release that perfectly captured the significance of the case. \u201cEagle Forum\u2019s triumph today is a victory for freedom of speech for all Americans who wish to be a part of the democratic process,\u201d the nonprofit wrote. <\/p>\n<p>Kristen A. Ullman, president of Eagle Forum, also highlighted what the Biden administration had done, noting that the \u201cDOJ ardently fought to harass a volunteer group of concerned citizens.\u201d Ullman further cautioned the DOJ to \u201ctake their loss today as a reminder they have awakened a sleeping giant\u201d \u2014 something clear from the fact that, as the court detailed in its opinion, it had received friend-of-the-court briefs from the Free Speech Coalition; 53 organizations, federal and state legislators, and individual citizens; the National Republican Redistricting Trust; and the Tea Party Patriots Action, Inc.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Given the systemic weaponization of the DOJ under the Biden administration, however, it seems unlikely Monday\u2019s decisive loss will stop the abuse of power, but the Eagle Forum and Southeast Law Institute\u2019s victory is proof the battle can be won.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Margot Cleveland is The Federalist&#8217;s senior legal correspondent. She is also a contributor to National Review Online, the Washington Examiner, Aleteia, and Townhall.com, and has been published in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. <\/p>\n<p>Cleveland is a lawyer and a graduate of the Notre Dame Law School, where she earned the Hoynes Prize\u2014the law school\u2019s highest honor. She later served for nearly 25 years as a permanent law clerk for a federal appellate judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Cleveland is a former full-time university faculty member and now teaches as an adjunct from time to time. <\/p>\n<p>As a stay-at-home homeschooling mom of a young son with cystic fibrosis, Cleveland frequently writes on cultural issues related to parenting and special-needs children. Cleveland is on Twitter at @ProfMJCleveland. The views expressed here are those of Cleveland in her private capacity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A federal judge in Alabama quashed the invasive subpoena the Biden administration served on the conservative Eagle Forum and Southeast Law Institute, holding the material sought from the nonprofits fell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1710505,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1711160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1711160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1711160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1711160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1710505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1711160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1711160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1711160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}