A federal judge on Friday gave the Trump administration seven days to restore the research of two Harvard Medical School doctors it pulled from a public government website because each referred to LGBTQ+ or “non-gender conforming” individuals, the ACLU said.
The two Harvard doctors sued the Trump administration in March and asked the court to declare the removal or alteration of speech that promotes “gender ideology” from its public websites and social media accounts unconstitutional and unlawful.
The lawsuit also asked that PSNet, the government’s patient safety network, be ordered to restore all articles and information related to LGBTQ+ and nonbinary individuals it removed after Trump was inaugurated.
The works ordered to be restored are a commentary on suicide risk by Dr. Gordon Schiff, director of quality and safety at the Harvard Medical School Center for Primary Care, and a piece on endometriosis by Dr. Celeste Royce, an assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive biology at Harvard.
“The plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits of their claims under the First Amendment and the Administrative Procedure Act,” US District Judge Leo T. Sorokin wrote in his two-page order allowing the requested preliminary injunction.
“They have suffered irreparable harm and will continue to suffer it in the absence of relief, the balance of harms tips decisively in their favor, and the public interest favors an injunction,” Sorokin wrote.
A hearing on the matter has been scheduled for Wednesday in federal court in Boston.
“Our clients were faced with an impossible choice: remove their patient safety research from PSNet entirely or change the words and messages to fit what this administration agrees with,” Rachel Davidson, staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, said in a statement.
“Republishing their articles is a victory for free speech and public health,” Davidson added. “The government can’t censor medical research solely because it disfavors certain viewpoints.”
The physicians who brought the lawsuit forward applauded the judge’s order.
“We are very gratified and encouraged by this affirmation of the First Amendment, academic freedom, and the illegality of the actions by the Trump administration in attempting to censor and take down our peer-reviewed patient safety articles,” Schiff’s statement said.
“We hope it gives others in the educational, research, and medical communities the courage to not be intimidated in resisting these unacceptable actions by the Trump administration that, unopposed, will cost many thousands of lives,” Schiff continued. “While re-posting of our articles to PSNet will reverse small, but important injustices, the larger attacks on public health and patient safety and health care access must also be resisted and reversed.”
Royce said she was grateful for the opportunity “to stand up for not just our rights, but those of other physicians, scientists, researchers, students, and all those who have been illegally silenced or engaged in self-censorship out of fear of this administration and the dismantling of our government and our democracy.”
“As an educator and a physician, I will continue to fight misinformation and falsehoods put out by the administration, and I will continue to advocate for the rights of my patients and my students,” Royce said. “I hope our victory today will inspire others to continue to fight against all the injustices happening, and fight for the civil and human rights of the LGBTQ community, immigrants, and all the communities this administration is trying to silence and suppress.”
Tonya Alanez can be reached at tonya.alanez@globe.com. Follow her @talanez.