Planned Parenthood scores a victory over Trump administration in Seattle

Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest and the Hawaiian Islands has won a round in a legal battle with the Trump administration.

A federal judge in Seattle on Thursday blocked the government from publicly disclosing a Title X grant application to provide family planning services in Hawaii.

Planned Parenthood is seeking the grant for next year. The nonprofit argues that disclosing the application would provide a blueprint for competitors and make the nonprofit less competitive in seeking federal money.

The Health and Human Services Department first told Planned Parenthood it was releasing the application because it received a public disclosure request – but later admitted there wasn't any such request. It said it planned to release the information anyway, after some redactions.

That didn’t set well with Judge John Coughenour.

“HHS’ misrepresentation of the actual basis for its disclosure decision strikes the Court as a stalking horse for the true reason behind the agency’s actions,” he wrote in his decision blocking release of the information.

Further, he wrote, the preliminary injunction applied to “defendants, their officers, agents, servants, employees, and attorneys, and those persons in active concert or participation with them.”

For now, the information is confidential while Planned Parenthood’s lawsuit moves forward.