Legal Actions

A group of 21 state and the District of Columbia have sued the Trump administration for cancelling numerous federal grants that were previously awarded to them. The plaintiffs have sued OMB and several federal agencies and argue that the administration is in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), as well as the in violation of ending Congressionally-mandated grants.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington sued the Trump administration for failing to comply with Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests it had made seeking records of all communications between these agencies and DOGE and related federal officials and requesting an agency-wide preservation hold on all documents potentially responsive to the request.

The State of Maine and its Department of Natural Resources have sued the Trump administration for cancelling a $9 million federal grant; this grant had been awarded to support a project aimed at restoring tidal salt marshes and protecting Maine’s coastal infrastructure from flooding. The plaintiffs claim the termination was unexplained and retaliatory, targeting the state due to its protections for transgender rights. The plaintiffs argue that the administration is in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, the Take Care Clause, the Separation of Powers, the Appropriations Clause, and the Tenth Amendment.

A nationwide group of state domestic violence and sexual assault coalitions filed a lawsuit against the Trump-Vance administration for conditioning federal funding on adherence to certain political and ideological positions related to transgender rights, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and immigration policy. The plaintiffs argued that these conditions violated the statutory requirements of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), the Administrative Procedure Act, the Spending Clause, the Separation of Powers doctrine, and the First and Fifth Amendments.

The American Bar Association (ABA) has sued the Trump administration for unlawfully targeting lawyers and law firms. The plaintiff argues that the administration used executive orders to pressure firms into dropping clients, legal arguments, and policies that conflicted with the administration's political agenda. The plaintiff argues that this conduct was unconstitutional on multiple grounds, including the First Amendment and separation of powers doctrine.

Environmental nonprofits have sued the Trump administration on issuing the American Energy Exemption Proclamation, which exempted 68 coal-fired power plants from updated federal hazardous air pollutant limits. The plaintiffs argue that President Trump improperly used the Clean Air Act's narrow exemption power and violated the Administrative Procedure Act.

Anonymous plaintiffs have sued the Trump administration for breaching the contracts with fellows of the Donald M. Payne Fellowship Program, after dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The plaintiffs contend that the terminations violated the Administrative Procedure Act, being arbitrary, capricious, and lacking a rational basis, thus constituting an abuse of discretion.

Newark Mayor Baraka has filed a lawsuit against Interim U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba and Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Ricky J. Patel. The lawsuit stems from the Mayor's arrest and prosecution during an oversight visit to an ICE detention facility. Mayor Baraka claims that Habba and Patel acted with politically motivated malice, unlawfully arresting and prosecuting him, and subsequently defaming him publicly. He specifically alleges false light invasion of privacy, claiming that Habba's public statements, including social media posts and interviews, deliberately misrepresented him as having committed a crime for political gain. Mayor Baraka claims that DHS agents violently arrested him for trespassing without probable cause.