Response Center
Real-time analysis of Trump-Vance administration actions, to support legal challenges and provide resources for the pro-democracy community.
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Check back here for analysis as the Trump-Vance administration announces additional policies that impact the American people.
Featured Policies & Analysis
Policies we're monitoring especially closely given their potential impact to people and communities throughout the United States.
Latest Policies & Analysis
Deny citizenship to babies born in the United States if their parents aren't citizens or lawful permanent residents
This order directs federal departments and agencies not to issue or accept citizenship-affirming documents for babies without at least one citizen or LPR parent.
This claims to end Birthright Citizenship by directing the U.S. government to withhold the issuance of documents and to refuse to accept state, local, or other documents recognizing the U.S. citizenship of babies born after Feb. 20, 2025 who do not have at least one citizen or Legal Permanent Resident (LPR, greencard-holder) parent. This order violates the Constitution and Supreme Court precedent, which held that all babies born in the United States are citizens, whether their parents are authorized to be here or even eligible for citizenship at all. This order also differentiates between the citizenship status of a child's mother and father and makes no provisions for babies born to unknown fathers.
Reinstate servicemembers who refused to get COVID vaccinates at the height of the pandemic
This order reinstates servicemembers who refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine at the height of the pandemic.
This order directs the Secretary of Defense to allow servicemembers who refused the COVID-19 vaccine during the military's 2021-2023 mandate to seek reinstatement and backpay. The order claims that the short-lived vaccine mandate was a burden on the military, but provides no evidence. Moreover, the mandate was lifted in 2023, so these members could already have sought to re-enlist without getting vaccinated.
These pardons grant clemency to 23 people convicted of threatening reproductive rights by violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.
The FACE Act, which became law in 1994, was designed to protect clinics that provide abortion, as well as the people seeking care, from violence. President Trump and other far-right groups have characterized the Biden administration's enforcement of the law as another example of a "weaponized" Justice Department. These pardons advance that narrative and undermine federal support for reproductive rights.
Undo lifesaving gun violence prevention policies
This order directs the Attorney General to find and dismantle all Biden Administration policies, guidance, and international agreements related to gun safety.
This order calls on the Attorney General to examine all Biden Administration actions related to preventing gun violence for any limitations on the ability of gun owners and manufacturers to make, purchase, carry, or use firearms however they choose. This order likely presages the rollback of Biden-era policies regulating ghost guns, expanding background checks, and providing more oversight of gun dealers. It will make it harder for America to reduce crime, drug trafficking, and deaths by firearms, including the high toll on children and the disproportionate effect on people of color.
Cut funding for scientific and medical research
This National Institutes of Health guidance seeks to cut the amount of "indirect costs" funding that research institutions receive for facilities, equipment, and personnel.
This guidance caps the amount of "indirect costs" funding that universities and other research institutions receive at 15% of their "direct costs" amount. Until now, scientific and medical research institutions might receive 50% or more in indirect costs funding, which supports building and laboratory maintenance, equipment upkeep costs, accounting, and researchers' compensation. The guidance will severely limit the ability of universities and other grant recipients to carry out vital and cutting edge research into topics affecting human health. Small institutions, including historically Black colleges and universities, may be especially likely to shutter research initiatives if they cannot access alternate funding in their budgets to cover indirect costs. America will lose its edge as a leader in research procedures and delivering results that positively impact health outcomes globally.
Attack immigrant-friendly cities and states and immigrant-serving nonprofits
This order threatens to defund cities and states that choose not to spend their resources on immigration enforcement, prosecute state and local officials, and cut funding to NGOs.
This memo outlines how the Department of Justice (DOJ) will be targeting states and localities that choose not to expend their resources on federal immigration enforcement, which DOJ inaccurately describes as "willfully fail[ing] to comply with ... applicable federal immigration laws." First, DOJ will require all states and localities applying for federal law enforcement grants to certify their compliance with narrow statute that prohibits states and localities from adopting a policy that prevents state or local officials from sharing with or receiving from the federal government "information regarding the citizenship or immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of any individual." Existing "sanctuary" policies do not violate section 1373 and adding additional conditions to DOJ grants was widely found to be unlawful in the first Trump administration. Second, the memo directs DOJ to identify and pause for 60 days all funding to organizations that "support or provide services to removable or illegal aliens," while the Department reviews the funding to determine whether to end it entirely. The memo does not acknowledge the Department's obligation to spend money appropriated by Congress for the purposes identified by Congress. Finally, the memo threatens to prosecute state and local officials who decline to engage in federal immigration enforcement under a federal conspiracy statute, a statute that criminalizes the harboring or concealing of unauthorized noncitizens, and the non-criminal section 1373.
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