The Biden administration can’t force a group of Catholic hospitals and doctors to perform so-called gender transition surgeries under a Health Care rule barring nondiscrimination, a US federal appeals court ruled.

A three-judge panel unanimously found the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) violated the religious beliefs of the plaintiffs, which included a group of nuns who run health clinics for the poor and an association of Catholic health care professionals.

The judges said if the administration applied the rule to the Catholic groups, it would violate the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

The panel upheld a lower court’s permanent injunction preventing HHS from enforcing the rule.

The judges said the lower court was correct in determining that “intrusion upon the Catholic Plaintiffs’ exercise of religion is sufficient to show irreparable harm.”