President Biden’s effort to force Catholic employers and health care providers to insure and treat transgender patients is an illegal infringement of those groups religious freedom and cannot be enforced, a second federal appeals court has ruled.

Ruling in Sisters of Mercy v. Becerra, a three-judge panel of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a permanent injunction Friday barring Mr. Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services from enforcing a rule that required Catholic hospitals to offer so-called “gender affirming” medical care to people diagnosed with gender dysphoria.

The ruling is the second one from a federal appeals court blocking the administration’s enforcement of the ruling.

A spokesman for one of the plaintiffs in the case, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, called the ruling a common-sense decision that will allow medical professionals to practice medicine in accordance with their consciences and professional judgment.

“The federal government has no business forcing doctors to violate their consciences or perform controversial procedures that could permanently harm their patients,” said Becket’s senior counsel, Luke Goodrich. “This is a common-sense ruling that protects patients, aligns with best medical practice, and ensures doctors can follow their Hippocratic Oath to ‘do no harm.’”

The case was brought by a coalition of Catholic hospitals, a Catholic university and a group of nuns who run health clinics serving low-income patients. The plaintiffs argued that the administration’s threats to invoke the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, and issue multi-million fines against health care providers that refused to perform controversial gender-reassignment procedures were an illegal infringement of their religious liberties.

In 2016, the civil rights office of the Obama administration’s health department finalized regulations under the Obamacare act that added “sexual orientation and gender identity” to a provision prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability or sex — including pregnancy — in covered health programs or activities. The mandate required doctors to perform gender transition procedures on any patient, including children, and required private insurance companies and many employers to cover gender reassignment therapy or face severe penalties and legal action.

A district court had earlier ruled against the transgender mandate, but the Biden administration appealed to the 8th Circuit in St. Louis, Missouri. U.S. District Judge Peter Welte in North Dakota ruled for the groups in January 2020, blocking Mr. Biden’s health department from taking any action that “would require them to perform or provide insurance coverage for gender-transition procedures.”

Mr. Welte also said Mr. Biden’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission could not use Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to force the plaintiffs’ hands, which the administration had also threatened to do. Friday’s unanimous decision by the riders of the 8th Circuit held that the rule is an intrusion on the plaintiffs’ exercise of religion.

The ruling was the second from a federal appeals court striking down the Biden administration’s plans. In August, the 5th Circuit in New Orleans affirmed a district court ruling in Franciscan Alliance v. Becerra “permanently enjoining (HHS) from requiring Franciscan Alliance to perform gender-reassignment surgeries or abortions in violation of its sincerely held religious beliefs.”

Xavier Becerra is Mr. Biden’s Secretary of Health and Human Services. The administration had until November 25 to appeal the 5th Circuit decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, but opted not to do so.