Washington Bid to Block Trump LGBTQ Bias Rule Suffers Setback

Washington failed to show it will be harmed by a U.S. Health and Human Services Department rule that allegedly threatens to wipe out Obamacare’s anti-bias protections for transgender people, a federal court in the state said.

Judge James Robart of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington Aug. 28 denied Washington’s motion to block HHS’s rewrite of a rule implementing Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act to remove sexual orientation and gender identity from its definition of discrimination “on the basis of sex.”

Section 1557 generally prohibits discrimination in health-care settings. An Obama administration rule expressly ...