Federal Court Vacates Key Provisions of HHS Nondiscrimination Rule on Gender Identity
On October 22, 2025, a federal court in Mississippi delivered a substantial blow to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) regulations aimed at protecting individuals from gender identity discrimination in health programs. The United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, in the case of Tennessee v. Kennedy, issued an order vacating specific provisions of the 2024 Nondiscrimination in Health Programs and Activities Final Rule. This ruling prohibits HHS agencies, including the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), from enforcing these particular protections, effectively narrowing the scope of nondiscrimination obligations for healthcare providers receiving federal funds.
The 2024 Nondiscrimination Rule and Section 1557
The court's decision directly concerns Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), a pivotal anti-discrimination provision that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability in any health program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. To enforce Section 1557, HHS's OCR published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in August 2022, which culminated in the 2024 Nondiscrimination in Health Programs and Activities Rule, issued on May 6, 2024. A key aspect of this 2024 Rule was its explicit clarification that discrimination on the basis of sex, as prohibited by Title IX and incorporated into Section 1557, includes discrimination on the basis of gender identity. This interpretation reflected a broader administrative effort to align federal civil rights protections with contemporary understandings of discrimination.
The Legal Challenge and Court's Ruling
The implementation of the 2024 Rule quickly faced legal challenges. Just months after its publication, on July 3, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi issued a preliminary injunction against HHS. This injunction temporarily prevented the department from enforcing or acting upon the rule's provisions related to gender identity discrimination, and it stayed the effective date of those specific provisions. The court's initial action signaled judicial skepticism regarding HHS's interpretation of its authority.
The final judgment, rendered on October 22, 2025, went further, issuing a universal vacatur for the contested parts of the 2024 Rule. The court specifically vacated regulatory provisions that expanded Title IX's definition of sex discrimination to include gender identity discrimination. The court also issued a declaratory judgment, explicitly stating that HHS
