The US District Court for the Nothern District of Texas Friday granted class certification to two Texas doctors in their lawsuit challenging the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) announcement that Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) bans discrimination in healthcare against transgender Americans. The ruling is the latest development in the ongoing healthcare discrimination case.

Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ruled Neese and Hurly were capable of representing an entire class of doctors who would be subject to the HHS interpretation. In his ruling, he argued that it did not matter if many of the providers included in this class disagreed with the lawsuit, stating “[whether] some putative class members may disagree with Plaintiffs’ aims or beliefs does not defeat the adequacy-of-representation requirement.”

In August 2021, doctors Susan Neese and James Hurly filed a complaint claiming that the HHS interpretation went beyond the text of the law. Friday’s ruling concerned only whether the two doctors constituted a class for the purposes of a class action suit. Neese and Hurly argue that the HHS interpretation of the ACA would cause them to lose funding and mishandle their practice of medicine. They claim that if the HHS interpretation were upheld, they would be forced to give patients prescriptions or treatments that they believe are unnecessary.