Health information wiped from internet by Trump administration must be restored online, judge rules

The E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse on June 6, 2024 in Washington, DC. A federal judge on February 11 ordered the Trump administration to restore certain public health webpages and datasets that federal health agencies had wiped from the internet in recent days. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to restore certain public health webpages and datasets that federal health agencies had wiped from the internet in recent days.

The new temporary restraining order from Judge John Bates came in a legal challenge brought by a doctors’ group that said the removal of the information was impeding their ability to care for patients.

In his 21-page opinion, Bates said that “it bears emphasizing who ultimately bears the harm of defendants’ actions: everyday Americans, and most acutely, underprivileged Americans, seeking healthcare.”

“If those doctors cannot provide these individuals the care they need (and deserve) within the scheduled and often limited time frame, there is a chance that some individuals will not receive treatment, including for severe, life-threatening conditions,” he said.

Administration officials, he wrote, “face a minimal burden if required to restore the public’s access to resources, many of which defendants made public for many years.”

At a court hearing Monday, the Justice Department attorney defending the administration suggested the sweeping removals of several pages of public health data and guidance may have only been temporary anyway, as the agencies were given a very quick timeline to comply with various Trump executive orders and they were still reviewing what webpages were covered under those presidential directives.

The judge’s Tuesday order is narrower than what the doctors initially sought. He has ordered the restoration of specific webpages and datasets highlighted in their filings, and then instructed the parties to work to together to identify other recently removed resources that doctors rely on so that they can also be restored to agency webpages.