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FIRST ON FOX: Conservative lawfare group America First Legal (AFL) has been filing records requests after 15 Democratic-led states and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, D, sued to block President Donald Trump's executive order banning sex changes for minors, in an attempt to find out whether the harm being alleged in their lawsuit is actually happening.
Fox News Digital reported last month on how AFL's more than a dozen records requests to state departments of health were either ignored, or did not include any responsive records documenting the harms the Democratic states' lawsuit warns stem from the president's executive order.
One of the states that AFL said ignored its records requests, Connecticut, did subsequently return to them with responsive records. However, according to AFL, the documents provided by Connecticut's health department continue to lend evidence that the harm being cited in Democrats' multi-state lawsuit is nonexistent.
"I don't see any impact to HSS funding or federal grants related to this executive order," said an email that was among what appeared to be three records that the Connecticut Department of Public Health provided to AFL, plus an additional final page that was entirely redacted.
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The email came from Elizabeth Frugale, a section chief for health statistics and surveillance at the Connecticut public health department, in response to a question from a grants management and budget supervisor, Aaron Knight, inquiring whether President Trump's executive order on transgender surgeries "adversely impacts any of your Federal grants."
Frugale's response stands in contrast to claims in the lawsuit against the president's executive order on sex changes, which argued the directive had "immediately" jeopardized federal funding and disrupted public health systems.
"If Connecticut was not financially impacted by the Executive Order, it should have declined to join a lawsuit," said Dan Epstein, vice president of America First Legal. "To challenge, without cause, Executive Order 14187's assurance that taxpayer dollars are not used for chemical and surgical mutilation of children, forces the courts to adjudicate political grievances, not actual disputes. AFL will continue to expose unfounded attempts to clog the federal courts as part of state lawfare against the Administration."
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The third record given in response to AFL's records request was just an employee notice asking folks to review a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) halting Trump's executive directive on trans surgeries for minors.
A nationwide preliminary injunction halting Trump's executive order on transgender surgeries was issued just a few months after it came down.
When asked how plaintiffs could show proof of harm for a policy measure that has been halted by the courts, Epstein said the plaintiffs in the case still must show "standing" for a court to provide a remedy. He noted that just because the plaintiffs filed their suit early does not mean this responsibility disappears.
"Because standing is necessary for any federal court to provide a remedy, plaintiffs must plead concrete evidence of harm in their complaint," Epstein asserted. "Here, plaintiffs' complaint failed to show an actual, traceable loss tied to the federal action, beyond merely speculative claims of harm or generalized concerns. Filing suit early does not eliminate this requirement to establish standing."
AFL's records requests to all the health departments belonging to states listed in the lawsuit, which was filed on Aug. 1, sought an array of records. Among them were documents showing the states had actually experienced the harms they claimed in their lawsuit, such as evidence of prosecutions or penalties for providers, clinic closures, reduced services and increased medical or mental-health crises for transgender adolescents.
The group also asked for records showing higher costs for services like counseling, crisis intervention or hospitalizations, worsened mental and physical health outcomes or the states' inability to meet legal obligations to provide medical care for minors in state custody. AFL asked for any internal communications specifically referencing the executive order and its alleged effects as well.
Only four states - Massachusetts, Illinois, Nevada and Connecticut - have provided any sort of response thus far. Furthermore, the responses that did arrive indicated there were no responsive records relating to AFL's requests, even though they asked for documents pertaining to precisely what the multi-state lawsuit against Trump's executive order alleges.
Trump's Executive Order 14187 is also being challenged for alleged discrimination in a lawsuit against the Health and Human Services Department led by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Fox News Digital reached out with questions to the Connecticut Attorney General's Office and the state's public health department in response to AFL's allegations, but did not receive a response in time for publication.
