History:
On Friday, August 14, 2026, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling in the DOJ’s appeal regarding the subpoena issued to QueerDoc. In a 2-1 decision, the majority reversed our win in the District Court and returned (“remanded”) the case back to the District Court to address the scope of the information sought pursuant to the subpoena.
We have requested an en banc rehearing of the case.
Timeline of Events:
The Background of the Subpoena
In June 2025, we received a subpoena from the Department of Justice (DOJ) demanding extensive administrative and patient data. Approximately 20 other organizations likely received similar subpoenas.
In October 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington granted our motion to quash the subpoena. The District Court ruled that the subpoena was issued for an improper purpose.
In November 2025, DOJ appealed this ruling. Oral argument for the appeal was held in March of 2026 before a panel of three Ninth Circuit judges.
On Friday August 14, 2026, in a 2-1 decision, the Ninth Circuit reversed the District Court’s ruling quashing the subpoena and remanded the case back to the District Court for further proceedings regarding the scope of the subpoena. In the opinion, two judges held that the government did not act improperly in issuing the administrative subpoena. The third judge on the panel dissented, stating that the District Court correctly exercised its discretion in finding that DOJ issued the subpoena for an improper purpose.
On Monday September 28, 2026, we asked the Ninth Circuit to rehear the case en banc.
What Does En Banc Mean?
“En Banc” is a legal term which means “on the bench” or “as a full bench.” It means that a larger body of judges within a court system will gather together to hear a case rather than a small panel of judges. For some courts, it means that all of the active judges for that jurisdiction sit together to hear the arguments in a case. For our case, the Ninth Circuit Court has a large number of active judges and en banc hearings are done with a panel of 11 judges rather than the full complement (there are 29 judges in the Ninth Circuit Court!). Procedurally, all of the Ninth Circuit active judges will vote to determine whether the court should rehear the case en banc. If a majority approves, a panel of 11 judges will rehear the case.
Timeline?
We expect this next part of the process to take a few months.
Impact to our Patients
Right now, nothing has changed for our patients. We have not produced any information to DOJ and we are continuing to see patients.
Our Legal Team and Additional Information
We are represented by the ACLU of Washington. You can read a summary of the details of our case, commentary on how the ACLU-WA is fighting federal overreach and their press release about the Ninth Circuit Court’s August ruling on their website.
We have written several blogs about the subpoena and our case over the past year:
QueerDoc vs. The DOJ Subpoena: The DOJ Has Appealed (2/16/26)
QueerDoc vs. The DOJ: At the 9th Circuit Court (4/16/26)
A QueerDoc Announcement on QueerDoc, PLLC vs. The DOJ, August 17,2026
