Federal Accountability

OAKLAND – California Attorney General Rob Bonta today issued the following statement on the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island’s decision granting a temporary restraining order to prevent a pause on critical federal assistance funding from going into effect:

“Today’s court order ensures our communities are able to continue to access necessary federal funding for disaster recovery, including for California's wildfire recovery efforts; education; public health and safety; and infrastructure projects. While the OMB directive was rescinded, the Administration has made clear that it intends to proceed with its plans to freeze federal funding – that's why we went to court to get this emergency pause. 

The Trump Administration is intentionally creating chaos through its public actions and statements, attempting to sow fear and confusion in our communities. We will not fall for this bait and switch. California has too much at stake. 

I am grateful for the court’s decision, and I will continue fighting to ensure that the President’s disastrous federal funding freeze never sees the light of day.” 

Attorney General Bonta co-led a multistate coalition in filing a lawsuit seeking to block the federal funding freeze on Tuesday.

Today’s decision institutes a temporary restraining order while the states seek a preliminary injunction. While the order is in effect, the Trump Administration may not pause, freeze, impede, block, cancel, or terminate its awards or obligations to provide federal financial assistance unless specifically allowed under the law. The order also blocks the Trump Administration from reissuing, adopting, implementing, or otherwise giving effect to the OMB directive under any other name or title, such as the continued implementation identified by the White House Press Secretary's statement on January 29, 2025. 

The Trump Administration is required to give written notice of this order to all agencies and their employees, contractors, and grantees by Monday, February 3, 2025, at 9 a.m. ET. 

This order extends beyond the administrative stay granted by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in response to a lawsuit brought by nonprofit groups that receive federal funds. 

A copy of the decision is available here.

New OMB directive would pause funding for disaster recovery, as well as public health, education, and public safety programs 

SACRAMENTO — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today, along with New York Attorney General Letitia James, led a coalition of 23 attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to block implementation of a memo by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) threatening to freeze up to $3 trillion in federal assistance funding effective at 2pm PT / 5pm ET today. The attorneys general are seeking a temporary restraining order to block the memo from taking effect, citing immediate harms to their states, which stand to lose billions in funding essential for the administration of vital programs that support the health and safety of their residents. Already, the order has thrown state programs into chaos and created uncertainty around their administration. Impacted programs include disaster-relief funding necessary for Los Angeles’ recovery from recent wildfires, as well as public health, education, public safety, and government programs.

“The Trump Administration is recklessly disregarding the health, wellbeing, and public safety of the people it is supposed to serve,” said Attorney General Bonta. “This directive is unprecedented in scope and would be devastating if implemented. Already, it has created chaos and confusion among our residents. I will not stand by while the President attempts to disrupt vital programs that feed our kids, provide medical care to our families, and support housing and education in our communities. Instead of learning from the defeats of his first Administration, President Trump is once again plowing ahead with a damaging – and most importantly, unlawful – agenda. I’m proud to co-lead a coalition of attorneys general in taking him to court.” 

The OMB directive freezing federal funding less than 24 hours after it was announced will cause immediate and irreparable harm to the states every day that it is in effect — in the form of millions of dollars in funds and mass regulatory chaos. Many states could face immediate cash shortfalls, making it difficult to administer basic programs like funding for healthcare and food for children and to address their most pressing emergency needs. This will result in devastating consequences for California in particular, given the uncertainty around continued disbursement of FEMA funding that is essential for recovery from the Los Angeles wildfires, which have caused an estimated $150 billion in economic losses.

In the lawsuit, the attorneys general argue that the OMB directive violates the U.S. Constitution, violates the Administrative Procedure Act, and is arbitrary and capricious. Specifically, the attorneys general argue that Congress has not delegated any unilateral authority to OMB to indefinitely pause all federal financial assistance under any circumstance, irrespective of the federal statutes and contractual terms governing those grants, and without even considering them. The directive also violates the “separation of powers” between Congress and the Executive Branch because the Spending Clause of the U.S. Constitution gives the power of the purse exclusively to Congress. The attorneys general seek a temporary restraining order to block the directive from being implemented.   

Attorney General Bonta is joined by the attorneys general of New York, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia in filing the lawsuit.  

A copy of the complaint is available here.  

Seeks court order to ensure U.S. citizenship rights of American-born children continue to be recognized while litigation proceeds  

SAN FRANCISCO – California Attorney General Rob Bonta today filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump Administration’s unconstitutional executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship. Under the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, all children born on U.S. soil are automatically granted U.S. citizenship and the rights and privileges that come with it. In 1898, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed this right in a case brought by Wong Kim Ark, a San Francisco-born, Chinese-American man who had been denied his re-entry rights after a trip abroad. In today’s lawsuit, 18 state attorneys general – led by California, New Jersey, and Massachusetts – argue that President Trump’s unprecedented executive order violates the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution and Section 1401 of the Immigration and Nationality Act and should be immediately blocked from going into effect while litigation proceeds. 

“The President’s executive order attempting to rescind birthright citizenship is blatantly unconstitutional and quite frankly, un-American,” said Attorney General Bonta. “As home of Wong Kim Ark, a San Francisco native who fought – successfully – to have his U.S. citizenship recognized, California condemns the President’s attempts to erase history and ignore 125 years of Supreme Court precedent. We are asking a court to immediately block this order from taking effect and ensure that the rights of American-born children impacted by this order remain in effect while litigation proceeds. The President has overstepped his authority by a mile with this order, and we will hold him accountable.” 

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 United States 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 United States, including those born to immigrants, could not be denied citizenship. 

Within hours of taking office, the President 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 residents. 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 immediately begin modifying their operation and administration of benefits programs to account for this change by February 19, when the order goes into effect.

In today’s filings, the attorneys general contend that President Trump’s executive order is a flagrant violation of the Constitution and the Immigration and Nationality Act and would cause irreparable harm to the states and their residents. As such, the attorneys general seek a nationwide preliminary injunction to prevent the denial of the constitutional rights of tens of thousands of babies born each year in the U.S. who otherwise would have been, and should be, citizens, including an estimated 24,500 children born in California annually, and the disruption vitally important public health and other federal benefit programs. 

Attorney General Bonta is joined by the attorneys general of New Jersey, Massachusetts, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin, along with the City of San Francisco. 

A copy of the complaint can be found here.