14. Department of Health and Human Services · Notable
Announce nonenforcement of SOGI discrimination bans under Section 1557
Printed page 495 14. Department of Health and Human Services
“Issue a general statement of policy specifying that it will not enforce any prohibition on sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination in the Section 1557 regulation and that it will prioritize compliance with the First Amendment, RFRA, and federal conscience laws in any case implicating those claims.”
What has happened
- Not started
OCR has issued no general statement of policy on Section 1557 enforcement. What exists is a court-compelled notice: HHS published on 2026-06-02 that the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, in Tennessee v. Kennedy, had on 2025-10-22 vacated the provisions of the 2024 Section 1557 rule extending sex discrimination to gender identity, so those provisions are legally void. That removes the prohibition rather than announcing a policy of not enforcing it, and it says nothing about prioritizing First Amendment, RFRA or federal conscience claims - the Quote's second limb. Cluster negative search E (Section 1557 and OCR enforcement policy) in the Chapter 14 log covers this item.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
- The same notice is #1395’s third event. Reusing it as delivery here would count one court order twice in one chapter’s Roll-up, which this record also declined to do for #1299/#1301/#1302. A reviewer who treats the vacatur notice as achieving the ask by a different instrument would say partial.
- The rulemaking that would carry a policy change, RIN 0945-AA32 Modify Portions of HHS Regulations Implementing Section 1557, is at Proposed Rule Stage with an NPRM listed for 02/2027 and is a lead: https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eAgendaViewRule?pubId=202510&RIN=0945-AA32
- Action
- issue
- Object
- OCR statement of policy on Section 1557 enforcement
- ID
- 1397