Federal Accountability

OAKLAND – California Attorney General Rob Bonta today issued the following statement on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision remanding consideration of the nationwide injunction to the lower courts in California and other states’ lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s unlawful executive order seeking to end the constitutional right to birthright citizenship. Less than 24 hours after the order was signed, Attorney General Bonta co-led a multistate coalition in suing President Trump, arguing that the President’s attempt to unilaterally end birthright citizenship violates the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and Section 1401 of the Immigration and Nationality Act and should be immediately blocked from going into effect while litigation proceeds. In its decision, the Supreme Court announced a new standard for nationwide injunctions, sending consideration of the scope of the injunction back to the lower courts. The decision states that the executive order cannot go into effect for 30 days. 

“The rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution belong to everyone in this country, not just those whose state attorneys general had the courage to stand up to this President’s anti-democratic agenda,” said Attorney General Bonta. “The Supreme Court’s decision allows the lower courts to further consider the scope of the district court's nationwide injunction — which we believe is clearly necessary to provide full relief to the states. We remain hopeful that the courts will see that a patchwork of injunctions is unworkable, creating administrative chaos for California and others and harm to countless families across our country. The fight is far from over, and we will continue working to ensure this unlawful, anti-democratic executive order never has the chance to be implemented.”

BACKGROUND

From the beginning of our nation’s history, America followed the common law tradition that those born on U.S. soil are subject to its laws and are citizens by birth. Although the Supreme Court’s notorious decision in Dred Scott denied birthright citizenship to the descendants of enslaved people, the post-Civil War United States adopted the Fourteenth Amendment to protect citizenship for children born in the country. The Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause explicitly promises that “[a]ll persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” 

The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed this constitutional right in 1898 when a San Francisco-born, Chinese American man was denied entry back into the U.S. after visiting relatives in China on the grounds that he was not a citizen. In United States v. Wong Kim Ark, the Supreme Court established that children born in the U.S., including those born to immigrants, could not be denied citizenship. 

Within hours of taking office, President Trump issued an executive order disregarding the U.S. Constitution and this long-established precedent. The order directs federal agencies to prospectively deny the citizenship rights of American-born children whose parents are not lawful permanent residents or U.S. citizens. The order instructs the Social Security Administration and Department of State, respectively, to cease issuing social security numbers and U.S. passports to these children, and directs all federal agencies to treat these children as ineligible for any privilege, right, or benefit that is reserved by law to individuals who are U.S. citizens.

If allowed to stand, the order would strip tens of thousands of children born each year of their ability to fully and fairly be a part of American society as rightful citizens, with all the benefits and privileges. These children would lose their most basic rights and be forced to live under the threat of deportation. They would lose eligibility for a wide range of federal benefits programs. They would lose their ability obtain a Social Security number and, as they age, to work lawfully. And they would lose their right to vote, serve on juries, and run for certain offices.  

The executive order would also directly harm California and other states, causing them to risk federal funding for vital programs that they administer, such as Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program; these programs are conditioned on the citizenship and immigration status of the children they serve. In addition, states would be required — on little notice and at considerable expense — to begin modifying their operation and administration of benefits programs to account for this change.

A copy of the court’s opinion is available here.

Case challenging Trump Administration’s unlawful deployment of federalized National Guard and Marines in California moves forward 

OAKLAND – California Attorney General Rob Bonta today responded to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California's order last night in California’s lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's unlawful federalization of the California National Guard and deployment of federalized National Guard troops and Marines for civilian law enforcement in Los Angeles. The court’s order (1) grants the state’s request for expedited discovery as to potential Posse Comitatus Act violations; and (2) denies the federal government’s request to transfer the case to the Central District of California. 

“President Trump continues to needlessly – and unlawfully – pull California National Guard servicemembers off of counterdrug taskforces and wildfire crews for the singular purpose of furthering his political agenda,” said Attorney General Bonta. “As he has done time and again, President Trump is choosing the path that makes our communities less safe instead of more. We need to know more about what the troops' orders are and how they are being deployed in Los Angeles communities. The court’s order allows us to gather those facts and continue to make our case in court. We will not let the President’s unprecedented overreach of executive authority go unchecked.”

A copy of the court’s order is available here. 

OAKLAND – California Attorney General Rob Bonta today issued a statement on a preliminary injunction issued by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington blocking the Trump Administration from unlawfully withholding billions of dollars in funding approved by bipartisan majorities in Congress for electric vehicle charging infrastructure.  

“It is no secret that the Trump Administration is beholden to the fossil fuel agenda. The administration cannot dismiss programs illegally, like the bipartisan Electric Vehicle Infrastructure formula program, just so that the President’s Big Oil friends can continue basking in record-breaking profits,” said Attorney General Bonta. “We are pleased with today’s order blocking the Administration’s unconstitutional attempt to do so, and California looks forward to continuing to vigorously defend itself from this executive branch overreach.” 

Background

In 2021, Congress passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. One provision of the IIJA appropriated $5 billion for the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) formula program to facilitate a national network of electric vehicle charging infrastructure across the states, making clean cars accessible and convenient for more consumers and markets. 

On Day One of his administration, President Trump issued an executive order directing federal agencies to immediately stop releasing certain funds appropriated through the IIJA, including $5 billion that Congress appropriated for electric vehicle charging stations under NEVI. Following that directive, the Federal Highway Administration effectively halted the NEVI program by, among other things, illegally withholding billions in funds that Congress had directed to the states for building EV infrastructure.

Last month, Attorney General Bonta, alongside California Governor Gavin Newsom, the California Department of Transportation, and the California Energy Commission, co-led a coalition of 17 attorneys general in filing a lawsuit against the Trump Administration to ensure the proper flow of NEVI funds. Today’s court order blocks the Trump Administration’s action while the case continues through litigation.  

A copy of the court order can be found here.

Since January, the Trump Administration has baselessly relied on a single subclause buried deep in federal regulations to slash tens of billions in previously awarded grant funding

OAKLAND – California Attorney General Rob Bonta today sued the Trump Administration over its improper use of a single subclause buried in federal regulations promulgated by the Office of Management of Budget (OMB) to terminate tens of billions of dollars in grant funding to the states. Since taking office, the Trump Administration has engaged in a nationwide slash-and-burn campaign, unlawfully invoking 2 C.F.R. § 200.340(a)(4) (“the Clause”) to justify the termination of tens of billions of dollars in critical federal funding appropriated by Congress and awarded to the states. The Trump Administration has claimed that five words in the Clause — “no longer effectuates . . . agency priorities” — provide federal agencies with virtually unfettered authority to withhold funding any time they no longer wish to support the programs for which Congress has appropriated funding. In today’s lawsuit, Attorney General Bonta and a multistate coalition argue that the Administration is misconstruing the Clause and that the Clause, properly read, does not allow for grant terminations based on agency priorities that were set or changed only after a grant was originally awarded. 

“The Trump Administration has recklessly and chaotically slashed federal grant funding that is intended to prevent crime, rebuild our roads, develop technology for the future, and everything in between,” said Attorney General Bonta. “This hack job has been done under the flimsy premise of ‘changed agency priorities’ — even when this funding has been previously appropriated by Congress and awarded to the states. For federal funding to work, the states that receive that funding need to be able to plan ahead, make investments, and be confident that this funding will not be terminated on a whim. We’re asking the court to block the Trump Administration’s unlawful invocation of this clause as a sweeping justification for the termination of grant funding.”

With the stroke of a pen, federal agencies ranging from the U.S. Department of Justice to the Environmental Protection Agency to the Department of Labor have deprived California and other states of essential funding they rely on to combat violent crime, prevent terrorist attacks, educate students with special needs, respond to natural disasters, protect clean drinking water, conduct life-saving medical and scientific research, upgrade crumbling transportation infrastructure, and much more. Federal agencies have done all of this without advance notice, without explanation to the state recipients, and in direct contravention of the will of Congress.    

In the lawsuit, Attorney General Bonta and the coalition argue that federal agencies’ invocation of the Clause to terminate grant funding runs counter to OMB’s own interpretation of its own regulations. When OMB first promulgated the Clause in 2020, it made clear that the language granted federal agencies only limited authority to terminate grants. Indeed, the coalition is not aware of a single instance prior to January 2025 in which a federal agency relied on the Clause to terminate a grant on the grounds that agency priorities had changed after the award of the grant. Since January 2025, however, federal agencies across the Trump Administration have asserted that the Clause provides them with a blank check to terminate grants already awarded to states based on newly identified agency priorities — even when those priorities conflict with the priorities identified by Congress or by the agency at the time of the grant award. Attorney General Bonta and the coalition today ask the District Court to declare that the Clause and the Trump Administration’s regulations implementing the Clause do not on their own provide sufficient grounds to terminate awards; vacate the Trump Administration’s decision to invoke the Clause as grounds for terminating grants based on a change in agency priorities; and permanently bar the Trump Administration from invoking the Clause in the future.   

Attorney General Bonta joins the attorneys general of New Jersey, Massachusetts, New York, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin, as well as the state of Pennsylvania, in filing the lawsuit. 

A copy of the lawsuit is available here. 

Public media is an essential resource — especially for rural communities in emergency situations  

OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today joined 23 attorneys general in submitting an amicus brief supporting NPR (National Public Radio) and PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) in their challenge to the Trump Administration directing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) to withhold federal funding from NPR and PBS. California public broadcasting companies received over $57 million in grants and allocations from CPB last year, much of which is distributed through NPR and PBS. In the brief, the attorneys general highlight the important role of public media in providing millions of Americans — especially rural, remote, and Tribal communities — with essential state and nationwide news and emergency notifications. Especially as the state experiences an increase in wildfires, Californians rely on public radio to receive vital information including evacuation orders.  

“Public media serves all Americans, regardless of their ability to pay. In many rural communities, public radio stations are often the main or only source for local news and regularly partner with federal, state, and local authorities to provide lifesaving emergency communications, including early earthquake warnings and fire evacuation orders,” said Attorney General Bonta. “Without federal funding, rural areas of the country would lose this critical communication lifeline. Particularly amid an increase in natural disasters, leaving a whole swath of Americans without access to timely information is dangerous and unacceptable.”

Public radio and television station alerts and reporting on emergency situations are often a lifeline for audiences throughout the country. Public broadcasters transmit emergency alerts to areas where there is little or no reliable internet or cellular service or when this service is disrupted. Public radio and television stations often have hardened and resilient infrastructure that allows them to continue broadcasting during emergency situations that may knock out power or other communications resources. Loss of federal funding to NPR and PBS would result in impacts to state and local authorities who frequently partner with public broadcasters; authorities would lose access to infrastructure they rely on to communicate immediate and life-saving emergency alerts to the public. Because this infrastructure cannot be quickly, easily, or inexpensively replaced, Americans nationwide — and particularly those in rural and remote areas — would experience real harm. 

Public media is particularly critical in rural and Tribal areas where news, educational programming, and emergency alerts are significantly more limited. Rural areas are more vulnerable to the catastrophic effects of weather disasters and tend to not have the same access to reliable, high-speed internet as their urban counterparts. 

In California, federal funding cuts to public media will disproportionately affect small and rural media stations, which are primarily funded by CPB. Approximately 40% of CPB grantees are considered rural — and in recent years CPB has prioritized resources to remote stations, which face unique challenges and higher costs than urban stations to reach remote sparsely populated areas. Whereas most urban stations have other funding sources, CPB funds can account for up to 60% of a rural station’s funding, meaning that reduction or elimination of funding from CPB would have the most negative impact on stations serving these communities. 

In submitting the amicus brief, Attorney General Bonta joins the attorneys general of Colorado, Arizona, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia. 

A copy of the brief can be found here.

OAKLAND – California Attorney General Rob Bonta today issued a statement following a decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals granting the federal government’s motion for a stay pending appeal in Newsom v. Trump. The court granted the federal government's motion, staying the district court’s temporary restraining order during the federal government's appeal. The temporary restraining order blocked the Trump Administration’s use of the federalized California National Guard to patrol our communities and engage in other law enforcement activity by returning control of the California National Guard to Governor Gavin Newsom.

“While it is disappointing that our temporary restraining order has been stayed pending the federal government’s appeal, this case is far from over,” said Attorney General Bonta. “The Trump Administration far overreached its authority with its unprecedented and unlawful federalization of the California National Guard and deployment of military troops into our communities. As senior military leaders serving in administrations from JFK to Obama have affirmed, the use of the military on U.S. soil should be ‘rare, serious, and legally clear.’ That is not the case in Los Angeles where our state and local law enforcement officers responded effectively to isolated episodes of violence at otherwise peaceful protests and the President deliberately sought to create the very chaos and crises he claimed to be addressing. While the court did not provide immediate relief for Angelenos today, we remain confident in our arguments and will continue the fight.” 

A copy of the decision is available here.

OAKLAND – California Attorney General Rob Bonta today issued the following statement on a decision by the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island to grant a preliminary injunction blocking the U.S. Department of Transportation’s imposition of unlawful immigration enforcement conditions on unrelated grant funding. In the lawsuit, Attorney General Bonta and the coalition argue that imposing this new set of conditions across a range of grant programs is arbitrary and capricious, exceeds the Trump Administration’s legal authority, and violates the Spending Clause.

“President Trump is threatening to withhold critical transportation funds unless states agree to carry out his inhumane and illogical immigration agenda for him. He is treating these funds – funds that go toward improving our roads and keeping our planes in the air – as a bargaining chip,” said Attorney General Bonta. “It’s immoral – and more importantly, illegal. I’m glad to see the District Court agrees, blocking the President’s latest attempt to circumvent the Constitution and coerce state and local governments into doing his bidding while we continue to make our case in court.”

BACKGROUND 

Last month, Attorney General Bonta led a coalition of 20 states, alongside the attorneys general of Illinois, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Maryland, in filing a lawsuit challenging the Trump Administration’s effort to unlawfully impose immigration enforcement requirements on U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) grants. California receives billions in grant funding from DOT each year to support and maintain the roads, highways, railways, airways, and bridges that connect our communities and carry our residents to their workplaces and their homes. This includes funding to maintain and build highways. It also includes funding for transit systems in urban and rural communities across the state — including buses, subways, light rail, commuter rail, trolleys, and ferries. Neither the purpose of these grants, nor their grant criteria, are in any way connected to immigration enforcement. 

A copy of the court’s decision is available here.

Judge sides with States, calling out the Trump Administration for an “appalling” pattern of discrimination against vulnerable communities

OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta yesterday secured a ruling by U.S. District Judge William Young, a Reagan Administration appointee in the District of Massachusetts, who ruled that the Trump Administration’s directives to terminate National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants to public health research institutions in plaintiff states were unlawful. The court struck down both the termination of the grants and the underlying executive orders under the Administrative Procedure Act. Judge Young stated that the Trump Administration’s conduct represents racial discrimination and discrimination against America's LGBTQ community, and that he had “never seen a record where racial discrimination was so palpable” in his 40 years on the bench. With this decision, the court ordered the terminated grants in plaintiff states to be restored. This will allow California universities to resume their work of life-saving biomedical advancement while the case proceeds. The court will consider next steps in the case, including addressing the issue of whether NIH has unreasonably delayed new grant applications. 

“The Trump Administration’s illegal attack on NIH grants is an assault on life-saving medical research, and our diverse communities who rely on it, and I’m glad to see the court has recognized the merits of our case,” said Attorney General Bonta. “Today’s decision restores grant funding to research institutions in plaintiff states that were terminated due to the Trump Administration’s reckless and discriminatory anti-DEI directives. The California Department of Justice will continue to fight for our diverse communities and the research institutions that do crucial work to advance our understanding of human disease and potential treatments.”

Background

On April 4th, 2025, Attorney General Bonta co-led a multistate coalition in filing a lawsuit against the Trump Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the NIH for failing to disperse grant funds and for unlawfully terminating existing grants for medical and public health research institutions across the country. The lawsuit alleged that NIH had terminated large swaths of already-issued grants for projects that are currently underway based on the projects’ perceived connection to “DEI,” “transgender issues,” “vaccine hesitancy,” and other topics disfavored by the current Administration. In boilerplate letters issued to the grants’ recipients, NIH claimed that each cancelled project “no longer effectuates agency priorities.” On April 14th, the coalition filed an amended complaint and motion for preliminary injunction. The court later set the case for trial on the merits dividing the case into two parts, the first being whether the termination of existing grants was illegal and the second whether the delay in processing new grants was unreasonable. 

NIH is the federal agency responsible for biomedical and public health research. Over 80% of Congressional funding supports NIH research and training at external labs, schools, and hospitals. It is estimated that every $1 invested in NIH research generates $2.56 of economic activity.

Over the years, NIH-supported research has had a profound impact on the health and wellbeing of the American people. NIH scientists pioneered the rubella vaccine, eradicating a disease that, in the 1960s, killed thousands of babies and left thousands more with lifelong disabilities. NIH studies led to the discovery of the BRCA mutation, helping countless Americans reduce their risk of breast and ovarian cancer. NIH research fueled the development of treatments for HIV and AIDS, transforming what used to be a fatal disease into one with a nearly normal life expectancy.   

The coalition will be filing a proposed order with the court in the coming days.  

OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta, alongside 18 attorneys general, filed an amicus brief in support of Job Corps, a national program that offers career training and housing to young Americans from low-income backgrounds. Job Corps has nearly 100 residential campuses across the country, and the Trump Administration’s illegal termination of the program threatens to leave thousands of vulnerable young Americans homeless.

“Job Corps has opened doors for low-income youth, offering job training, education, and a pathway to economic stability,” said Attorney General Bonta. “The Trump Administration’s attempt to gut this critical program jeopardizes thousands of young people nationwide who rely on it. Not only is dismantling Job Corps unlawful, but it will hinder economic growth by dismantling a strong pipeline of skilled workers.” 

The brief explains that “in the sixty years since Congress created Job Corps, millions of young Americans from low-income backgrounds have been served by the program’s unique combination of education, training, housing, healthcare and community.”  The unlawful termination will impact tens of thousands of young Americans who are currently enrolled and housed at campuses in all fifty states. Thousands of these program participants were unhoused or in foster care when they enrolled and have no alternative housing if they lose their residence through the program.

The amicus filing reaffirms that the injunction is necessary to protect vulnerable state residents and promote state goals in education and workforce development. It further reinforces the point that the Trump Administration cannot violate federal law and the Constitution by terminating congressionally mandated programs it opposes.

Attorney General Bonta is joined by the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, Oregon, and Vermont, in filing this amicus brief. 

A copy of the amicus brief is available here.  

OAKLAND – California Attorney General Rob Bonta today, as part of a coalition of 23 attorneys general, announced filing an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in support of the Plaintiffs’ opposition to the Trump Administration’s appeal of a preliminary injunction order in Global Health Council, et al. v. Trump, et al., a lawsuit challenging the Trump Administration’s freeze of federal funding of foreign assistance funds from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). In their brief, the attorneys general argue that the Trump Administration’s unlawful impoundment of USAID funds undermines Congress’s constitutional authority and is contrary to the public interest, harming amici states and their residents.

“The Trump Administration does not have the authority to unilaterally withhold lawfully appropriated federal funds,” said Attorney General Bonta. “The unlawful impoundment of these funds results in irreparable harm to states across the nation that rely on federal funding for critical humanitarian and public health programs, research, and initiatives. In California alone, organizations and universities receive over $1.2 billion in USAID funding.”

In the amicus brief, the coalition of attorneys general urges the court to affirm the district court’s preliminary injunction order, arguing that the Trump Administration is constitutionally obligated to spend funds appropriated by Congress and that the unlawful freeze of USAID funding poses irreparable harm to states. In stopping the flow of billions of dollars of USAID funding for foreign assistance programs, the Trump Administration has inflicted substantial harms on universities, farmers, nonprofits, and small businesses across the nation. To date, hundreds of domestic workers have been terminated, substantial amounts of American crops intended for international distribution have been unallocated, and hundreds of millions of dollars of cutting-edge research projects at some of the nation’s top public universities have been halted as a result of the Trump Administration’s unlawful actions.

In filing the amicus brief, Attorney General Bonta joins the attorneys general of the District of Columbia, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin

A copy of the amicus brief can be found here.