Texas is demanding gender transition records from a Seattle hospital

[jmowreader]

45. What my response would be

Fm: (name), Director, Seattle Children's Hospital
To: The Honorable Ken Paxton, Attorney General of the State of Texas
Subj: Your recent demand for patient records

1. I shall start this letter with a definition: jurisdiction, n. the authority given by law to a court to try cases and rule on legal matters within a particular geographic area and/or over certain types of legal cases. It is vital to determine before a lawsuit is filed which court has jurisdiction. State courts have jurisdiction over matters within that state...

2. Seattle Children's Hospital is a nonprofit corporation operating primarily within the State of Washington, with a number of locations. Our Hospital Campus is located at 4800 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle. This campus also houses our Emergency Department and an Urgent Care Clinic. We have Urgent Care Clinics in Bellevue, Everett and Federal Way, all cities in the Seattle metropolitan area. We have two Odessa Brown Children's Clinics in Seattle, one of which we will proudly open in 2024. We possess general medical clinics in the Seattle area and in two cities in Central Washington, those being Kennewick and Wenatchee. We own three out-of-state clinics, all specializing in Pediatric Cardiology. One of them is in Anchorage, Alaska; the other two are in the Montana cities of Bozeman and Great Falls. Please note that Seattle Children's Hospital does not maintain any sort of business presence in the State of Texas. Texas is blessed with many very fine children's hospitals.

3. Because Seattle Children's Hospital does not and will not operate within the State of Texas, Seattle Children's Hospital does not fall into the jurisdiction of your office. Therefore, we will not provide you with any of the information you have demanded.

4. Seattle Children's Hospital's general counsel advises that if you intend to pursue this matter further you should retain a competent attorney as she believes you don't have one.

Regards and best wishes.