Federal Accountability

Alongside multistate coalition, warns of devastating impacts to children nationwide

OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today continued his defense of birthright citizenship by co-leading a coalition of 24 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in Trump v. Barbara at the U.S. Supreme Court. On his first day in office in 2025, President Trump issued an order seeking to end birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to immigrant parents. Attorney General Bonta immediately co-led a coalition in filing a lawsuit challenging the order and repeatedly obtained nationwide preliminary injunctions that blocked this executive order from ever taking effect. The Supreme Court is now considering the validity of this order in a separate case brought by a class of children who would lose citizenship under the order. In today’s brief, Attorney General Bonta and the coalition urge the Supreme Court to find the executive order in violation of the Citizenship Clause, binding Supreme Court precedent, and the Immigration and Nationality Act. 

“For nearly our entire nation’s history, we have recognized that those born here, subject to our laws, are Americans, fully and equally. The text of the Constitution and more than a century of precedent make clear: birthright citizenship is a right, and President Trump cannot undo that by fiat,” said Attorney General Bonta. “Every branch of government, across Administrations, has affirmed birthright citizenship, and the U.S. Supreme Court should uphold that right.”

Since the beginning of our nation’s history, the United States has followed the common law tradition that those born on U.S. soil are subject to its laws and are citizens by birth. Although the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dred Scott denied birthright citizenship to the descendants of enslaved people, the United States in 1868 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 Supreme Court affirmed this constitutional guarantee in 1898 in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, holding that all children born in the United States, including those born to immigrants, were citizens.    

Now, the Trump Administration seeks to strip hundreds 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, including an estimated 24,500 children born annually in California. These children would lose their most basic rights and be forced to live under the threat of deportation. Some babies will be stateless, lacking a home country to return to. 

The executive order would also severely harm California and other states by jeopardizing federal funding for essential 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. Yet, these children would still require healthcare, education, and social services, forcing states to absorb the costs. If the order went into effect, 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. 

Even more alarming, although the order that President Trump signed indicates it would only apply to babies born within the United States after 30 days from the date of the order, there is no reason to believe that the Trump Administration would stop there if the Supreme Court were to side with its theories.

Attorney General Bonta leads the coalition in filing the brief along with New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport, Washington Attorney General Nick Brown, and Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell. They are joined by the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai'i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia, along with the City and County of San Francisco.

Lawsuit also challenges Secretary Kennedy’s appointments to key federal vaccine panel

OAKLAND — In partnership with Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, California Attorney General Rob Bonta today announced co-leading a multistate lawsuit against the Trump Administration over unprecedented changes that were recently made to the childhood immunization schedule, which will make people sicker and strain state resources. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Acting Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Jay Bhattacharya, and the CDC and HHS are named as defendants. Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the complaint challenges a January 5, 2026 "Decision Memo" by the CDC that stripped seven childhood vaccines — those protecting against rotavirus, meningococcal disease, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, influenza, COVID-19, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) — of their universally recommended status. The lawsuit also challenges Secretary Kennedy's unlawful replacement of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the expert federal panel that has guided U.S. vaccine policy for decades. The coalition of 14 attorneys general and the Governor of Pennsylvania is asking the court to declare the new vaccine schedule and the new ACIP appointments unlawful, and to enjoin, vacate, and set aside both the new immunization schedule and the ACIP appointments.

“The Trump Administration’s attacks on science are irresponsible and dangerous. Undermining confidence in vaccines will lead to lower vaccination rates and more infectious disease. It will also drive-up costs for states, including increased Medicaid spending and new expenses to combat misinformation and revise public health guidance,” said Attorney General Rob Bonta. “Public health decisions must remain grounded in truth and facts. That’s why, for the 59th time, I’m taking the Trump Administration to court. My fellow attorneys general and I cannot sit on the sidelines while lives are put at risk and our laws are broken.”

“California is going back to court because the Trump Administration is violating federal law and pushing a reckless, unscientific childhood vaccine schedule that puts kids’ lives at risk. These changes ignore decades of medical evidence and will lead to outbreaks of diseases we’ve already beaten,” said Governor Gavin Newsom. “We will not stand by while politics overrides science and endangers our children. Just as we’ve done before, we’re standing up — alongside 14 other states — to defend the law, protect public health, and keep our kids safe.”

Among children born in the U.S. between 1994 and 2023, researchers have estimated that routine childhood vaccinations prevented approximately 508 million cases of illness, 32 million hospitalizations, and over 1.1 million deaths, generating $2.7 trillion in societal savings. This remarkable achievement has been made possible in large part by leading medical scholars and public health experts who have served on the ACIP and established the science-based childhood vaccination schedule that federal agencies, states, and parents have confidently relied on for decades.

Secretary Kennedy is among the most prominent anti-vaccine activists in the country and has significantly contributed to eroding trust in safe and effective vaccines. During Secretary Kennedy’s confirmation process, he made numerous promises in an apparent effort to address concerns about his longstanding anti-vaccine views. One of those promises was that he would not alter the ACIP. The ACIP is a 17-member federal advisory board to the CDC that, under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), must be “fairly balanced in terms of the points of view represented and the functions to be performed,” and not be “inappropriately influenced by the appointing authority or by any special interest[.]” The ACIP develops recommendations for routine immunization of both pediatric and adult populations, which become official CDC policy upon approval by the CDC Director. Once adopted into the CDC immunization schedule, the ACIP’s recommendations determine which vaccines are covered under several federal supported immunization programs.

In a Wall Street Journal opinion column published on June 9, 2025, and ironically titled “HHS Moves to Restore Public Trust in Vaccines,” Secretary Kennedy abruptly announced that he was dismissing all 17 ACIP members. He subsequently appointed new ACIP members. At least nine of the 13 current ACIP members lack the expertise or professional qualifications required for the role, and a majority have publicly expressed views aligned with Secretary Kennedy's well-documented opposition to vaccines. Among other things, Secretary Kennedy failed to issue the required Federal Register notice, to follow FACA’s “fairly balanced” requirement, and to appoint individuals with scientific qualifications as required by ACIP's own charter. 

On December 5, 2025, the ACIP members unlawfully appointed by Secretary Kennedy then voted 8 to 3 to reverse nearly 30 years of CDC policy recommending that the hepatitis B vaccine be universally administered at birth as part of a three-dose series. The hepatitis B vaccine is up to 90 percent effective in preventing perinatal infection when administered within 24 hours of birth. However, the Trump Administration’s reliance on even the unlawfully reconstituted ACIP was temporary. Last month, then-Acting CDC Director Jim O’Neill — who has no medical or scientific background — signed off on a “Decision Memo” that demoted seven vaccines from the universally recommended childhood vaccination schedule to a lesser status that invites confusion and uncertainty. The Decision Memo was not based on any new scientific evidence, any recommendation by a lawfully constituted ACIP, or any systematic review of the available data. Instead, it relied primarily on superficial comparisons to purported "peer countries" — particularly Denmark, which has universal healthcare and a small, homogenous population — while ignoring the fundamental differences between those nations and the United States, as well as the overwhelming evidence supporting the effectiveness of the CDC’s pre-Kennedy childhood immunization schedule.

In response to the lack of science-based leadership from the federal government, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced the creation of the West Coast Health Alliance to create and promulgate communications to the public and to healthcare providers regarding the West Coast Health Alliance’s shared, collective recommendations.

Joining Attorneys General Bonta and Mayes in filing today’s lawsuit are the attorneys general of Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, and the Governor of Pennsylvania.  

Motion asks court to require FEMA to restore critical disaster resilience program and make billions in funding available to the communities relying on them

OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today joined a coalition of 22 states and the District of Columbia in filing a motion asking the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts to enforce its December 11, 2025 order that prohibited the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) from terminating the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program and directed the agency to promptly take all steps necessary to reverse the termination. For the past 30 years, the BRIC program has provided communities across the nation with resources to proactively fortify their infrastructure against natural disasters. By focusing on mitigation and community resilience, the program has saved lives, reduced injury, protected property, and saved money that would have otherwise been spent on post-disaster costs.   

“FEMA’s BRIC program is critical. It has earned bipartisan support because the funding helps communities prepare for disasters before they strike,” said Attorney General Bonta. “Late last year, my fellow attorneys general and I successfully blocked the Trump Administration’s unlawful attempt to shut down the BRIC program. We are now returning to court to ensure that the order we secured is fully enforced. We need to know why there’s been a failure to comply — it is unacceptable.”   

On July 16, 2025, Attorney General Bonta and the coalition filed a lawsuit to prevent FEMA from terminating its BRIC program — an action that had already delayed, scaled back, and cancelled hundreds of mitigation projects across the country depending on this funding. On December 11, 2025, the coalition won their case. The court declared the termination of this congressionally mandated program unlawful and ordered FEMA to promptly take all steps necessary to reverse the termination.  

Over two months have passed and the federal government has offered no indication that they have complied with the court order. FEMA’s regional offices lack information about whether and when it will resume the BRIC program, and some have indicated that FEMA is taking a “wait and see” approach — contrary to the clear terms of the court’s order. During this time, the federal government has not identified any concrete steps that it has taken to reverse the BRIC termination.  

Attorney General Bonta and the coalition are asking the court to enforce the December 11 order by requiring the federal government to make pre-disaster mitigation funds available as required by statute, communicate the status and next steps for current BRIC projects to the states, communicate the reversal of the BRIC termination to all relevant stakeholders, and file status reports with the court outlining any actions taken or planned to comply with the order.  

Over the past four years, FEMA has selected nearly 2,000 projects to receive roughly $4.5 billion in BRIC funding nationwide. In California, projects that have been awarded funding include: 

• A project in City of Rancho Palos Verdes to reduce geologic landslide movement that threatens most of the City’s residents and infrastructure, including a major arterial roadway that provides community and emergency access, sanitation sewer lines located along this roadway, electric and communication lines, potable water lines, and gas lines. Without this project, landslide movement will continue to threaten critical infrastructure, damage homes and property, and endanger lives. 
• A project in the City of Sacramento to mitigate flooding of five major interchanges, 3.9 miles of a major interstate highway, a runway at an airport, surface streets, 27,000 housing units, and more. Among other things, the project would have improved floodwall sections, improved levee sections, and relocated a pump station. 
• A project in Kern County to seismically retrofit the Kern Valley Healthcare District’s hospital that provides acute care and emergency medical services to a remote population in the mid-northern region of the Kern River Valley area. Unless seismically retrofitted, the hospital may soon need to close. This would force hundreds of thousands of Californians to seek services at hospitals over two hours away.

Joining Attorney General Bonta in filing this motion are the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin, Washington, and the governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta issued the following statement in response to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois granting his motion for a temporary restraining order, which blocks the Trump Administration from terminating more than $600 million in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) grants for 14 days. The planned cuts exclusively target four Democratic-led states: California, Colorado, Illinois, and Minnesota. The attorneys general of each of those states filed a lawsuit yesterday alleging that the funding cuts would irreparably harm their states and are based on political animus. The court’s accompanying opinion states, in part, that “recent statements plausibly suggest that the reason for the direction is hostility to what the federal government calls ‘sanctuary jurisdictions’ or ‘sanctuary cities.’”

“I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: If President Trump and those who work for him want to stop losing in court, they should stop breaking the law,” said Attorney General Bonta. “My fellow attorneys general and I will continue standing up for public health and the well-being of the people we serve. We are confident that the facts and the law favor a permanent block of these reckless and illegal funding cuts.”

Previous attempts by Trump Administration to withhold federal funds from Democratic states have ended in defeat

OAKLAND — Alongside the attorneys general of Colorado, Illinois, and Minnesota, California Attorney General Rob Bonta today filed a lawsuit against the Trump Administration for illegally planning to cut more than $600 million in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) grants, with more cuts potentially to come. On Monday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) notified Congress of its intention to terminate the grants exclusively in four Democratic-led states: California, Colorado, Illinois, and Minnesota. The targeted grants fund essential public health infrastructure, as well as testing and treatment for lethal diseases like HIV. Among the four states, California faces the largest share of the proposed funding cuts. Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, the lawsuit alleges that the funding cuts would irreparably harm the states and are based on political animus. The attorneys general have also filed a motion for a temporary restraining order to block the funding cuts from taking effect.

“President Trump is resorting to a familiar playbook. He is using federal funding to compel states and jurisdictions to follow his agenda. Those efforts have all previously failed, and we expect that to happen once again,” said Attorney General Bonta. “Still, all Americans should be outraged. President Trump is not above the law, but he continues to act as if he is. My fellow attorneys general and I will not be silenced. We will continue taking him to court any time he takes unlawful actions.” 

President Trump, on social media and in comments to the media, has repeatedly threatened to withhold funding from states whose policies he disagrees with. Earlier this month, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a Targeting Directive, ordering the CDC to cut over $600 million in public-health funding from California, Colorado, Illinois, and Minnesota. Monday’s HHS Notification carries out the Targeting Directive.

The largest grant program targeted for termination is the Public Health Infrastructure Block Grant (PHIG). This program operates in all 50 states — not just in California, Colorado, Illinois, and Minnesota. California and its local public health departments, including the Counties of Santa Clara and Los Angeles, use PHIG funds to strengthen their workforce and ensure that the workforce can perform core functions necessary to protect public health, including disease surveillance and infectious disease control, emergency preparedness and response, laboratory and pharmacy capacity, food security, and support for communities to respond to health risks and emergencies. In California, the largest PHIG grant at issue totals $180 million, of which $130 million is still outstanding.

In today’s lawsuit, the attorneys general argue that the planned funding cuts violate the Administrative Procedure Act’s requirement of reasoned decisionmaking and exceed the agencies’ statutory authority and the U.S. Constitution by imposing retroactive conditions on funding.

OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today secured a court order that continues blocking the Trump Administration’s illegal attempt to freeze over $10 billion in federal funding for childcare and family assistance programs. Last month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) imposed a funding freeze exclusively on five Democratic-led states — California, New York, Colorado, Illinois, and Minnesota — on the sole basis of unsupported claims of “serious concerns about widespread fraud and misuse of taxpayer dollars.” To protect the Congressionally-authorized funds that support critical services, the attorneys general of the five states sued HHS on January 8 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, challenging the funding freeze as well as HHS’s extraordinarily broad requests for data and documents related to the states’ use of the funding. Less than 24 hours later, Attorney General Bonta and his colleagues secured a temporary restraining order, which blocked the funding freeze and requests for data and documents for 14 days. On January 16, the attorneys general filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to ensure the court’s protections remain in effect while the litigation proceeds. On January 23, Judge Vernon Broderick extended the temporary restraining order for an additional 14 days. Today, he granted the states’ motion for a preliminary injunction, continuing to preserve over $10 billion in funding “until a decision on the merits in this case[.]”

“We are pleased that the court has once again sided with us. The Trump Administration’s actions are not only unlawful — they are cruel, targeting the most vulnerable among us,” said Attorney General Bonta. “My fellow attorneys general and I will not relent in this case, and we are confident that we will ultimately prevail in permanently blocking the unlawful funding freeze.”

The funding at issue benefits millions of Californians — including children, families, seniors, and individuals with disabilities — through Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the Child Care and Development Fund, and the Social Services Block Grant. Of the $10 billion, approximately $5 billion was frozen in California alone by the Trump Administration.

OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta yesterday led a coalition of 20 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief opposing the Trump Administration’s efforts to terminate the Flores Settlement Agreement, which has been in place since 1997. The Flores Settlement Agreement provides crucial protections against the inappropriate detention of children and ensures the children in immigration custody are held in facilities licensed in and subject to oversight by the states in which they reside. In May 2025, the Trump Administration moved to terminate the Flores Settlement Agreement with the goal of expanding family detention and increasing the duration of child detention. In the brief filed, Attorney General Bonta and the coalition urge the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to block the Trump Administration’s latest attempt to end the Flores Settlement Agreement and to prevent the Administration from keeping children in prolonged and unnecessary detention. 

“It is shocking, vile, but unfortunately unsurprising that the Trump Administration is once again trying to strip away decades-old protections designed to keep immigrant children safe. No child deserves to be left in potentially unsafe or unhealthy conditions, or subjected to prolonged confinement,” said Attorney General Bonta. “Shame on this Administration for using vulnerable immigrant children as political pawns to further their ideological agenda. California will continue to fight for the protection, welfare, and safety of all children, regardless of their immigration status.”

For almost 30 years, the Flores Settlement Agreement has ensured the safety and wellbeing of children in immigration custody through the enforcement of state child welfare laws. The agreement requires that children be held in state-licensed facilities under oversight, released without unnecessary delay to parents, guardians, or licensed programs, and placed in the least restrictive setting appropriate to their age and needs. It also sets standards for education, recreation, and overall care, establishes conditions of confinement, and provides monitoring to protect children while in custody. Maintaining this arrangement for immigrant youth is crucial to ensure that states can protect the rights and wellbeing of all children in their care, regardless of immigration status.

In 2019, California sued when the first Trump Administration attempted to terminate the Flores Settlement Agreement. California and other states also supported challenges to these actions, and a district court halted almost all of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s regulations and declined to terminate the Flores Settlement Agreement. Over time, some claims were resolved, and in 2024, the Biden Administration adopted new rules that restored and strengthened protections for unaccompanied children. Upon re-entering office, the Trump Administration once again tried to completely terminate the Flores Settlement Agreement and revert to the 2019 Department of Homeland Security rule. After this action was rejected by a district court, the federal government appealed the decision to the Ninth Circuit.

In the brief, Attorney General Bonta and the coalition argue that the Trump Administration’s attempt to terminate the Flores Settlement Agreement interferes with states’ traditional and sovereign role to help ensure the health, safety, and welfare of children by undermining state licensing requirements for facilities where children are held. The termination would result in the vast expansion of family detention centers, which are not state licensed facilities and have historically caused increased trauma in children, and prolong the time children spend in immigration detention, causing significant long-term harm to their physical, mental, and emotional health, disrupting their development and educational needs and increasing burdens to the states that provide services to support them.

Attorney General Bonta is committed to continuing to fight for children already within our borders who need more protection, not less. Attorney General Bonta recently filed a comment letter opposing a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services rule rolling back protections for unaccompanied children.

In filing the amicus brief, Attorney General Bonta is joined by the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawai‘i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington.

OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today, co-leading a multistate coalition along with New York Attorney General Letitia James, filed an amicus brief opposing a federal policy that mandates the indefinite detention of many undocumented immigrants without the opportunity for a bond hearing. In a brief filed in Rodriguez Vazquez v. Bostock, the coalition challenges the unprecedented reinterpretation of immigration law by immigration authorities, arguing that the new policy contravenes Congress’s intent and the right to due process and federal statutes, and inflicts widespread harm on families, communities, and states.

“The Trump Administration has carried out its inhumane immigration agenda by abducting, incarcerating, and deporting members of our communities without regard for the rule of law,” said Attorney General Bonta. “Its latest policy seeks to indefinitely detain immigrants in violation of their Constitutional right to due process. It’s inhumane and illegal, and I will continue to fight it in every way I can.”

For decades, immigrants living in the U.S. who were placed in removal proceedings had the right to request a bond hearing — a chance to argue for, and be afforded an individualized determination of the propriety of, their release while their immigration case was pending. The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) nationwide adoption of this policy eliminates that right for those who are alleged to have entered the country without inspection, mandating their indefinite detention, even where they may have strong claims for relief. Many of these people have lived in the United States for years and now face confinement in overcrowded, unsafe, and unsanitary facilities with no clear end in sight. As DHS expands its enforcement efforts, millions of additional immigrants could be subjected to mandatory detention under this policy.

This policy also hurts U.S. citizens, over 9 million of whom, including 4 million children, live with an undocumented family member. The detention of these family members can increase the risk of depression, anxiety, and economic instability. Fear of detention already deters immigrant families from seeking healthcare, food assistance, and even reporting crimes. The attorneys general argue that the excessive and unlawful mandatory detention policy only worsens this effect.

This policy doesn’t just harm families, it also costs taxpayers. Attorney General Bonta and the coalition argue that unnecessarily detaining undocumented workers disrupts the labor force and undermines local and state economies. Undocumented immigrants constitute nearly 5% of the U.S. workforce. In 2023, undocumented-led households paid nearly $90 billion in taxes and contributed almost $300 billion in consumer spending. The attorneys general also argue this policy will come at a substantial cost to taxpayers. In 2024, immigration detention cost U.S. taxpayers $3.4 billion – roughly $152 per detainee per day. By contrast, DHS’s own Alternatives to Detention program costs less than $4.20 per day and is equally effective in ensuring court appearances.

The attorneys general urge the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to grant partial summary judgment for the plaintiffs and strike down DHS’s unlawful policy.

Rodriguez Vazquez v. Bostock challenges the same “no bond” policy at issue in Bautista v. Noem. Attorneys General Bonta and James led a multistate coalition in filing a similar amicus brief in support of the plaintiffs in that case last year. 

Attorneys General Bonta and James lead the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai`i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington in filing the brief.

LOS ANGELES — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today filed a lawsuit against the Trump Administration, challenging the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s (PHMSA) orders that illegally assert exclusive jurisdiction over two California onshore oil pipelines, known as the Las Flores Pipelines or lines CA-324 and CA-325, and allow them to restart operations. Filed in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the Attorney General's petition for review challenges PHMSA’s attempt to evade state regulation through its orders to federalize the Las Flores Pipelines, approve Sable Offshore Corp.'s (Sable) Restart Plan, and issue Sable an emergency permit to restart oil transport through the pipelines. In the lawsuit, Attorney General Bonta and the Office of the State Fire Marshal argue that PHMSA's orders violate the Administrative Procedure Act and ask the Court to overturn PHMSA’s illegal orders.

“In its latest unlawful power grab, the Trump Administration is illegally claiming exclusive federal authority over two of California's onshore pipelines. California has seen first-hand the devastating environmental and public health impacts of coastal oil spills — yet the Trump Administration will stop at nothing to evade state regulation which protects against these very disasters,” said Attorney General Rob Bonta. “The President is once again prioritizing his donors over our people and communities. California will not stand idly by as the President endangers California's beautiful coastline and our public health to increase profits for his fossil fuel industry friends.”

"The Office of the State Fire Marshal is committed to its mission to protect the people, property, and natural resources of California," said State Fire Marshal Daniel Berlant. "Our team has worked diligently to uphold the terms of the consent decree and ensure the safety of lines CA 324 and CA 325.”

On December 17, 2025, the federal PHMSA illegally reclassified the Las Flores pipelines that run from Santa Barbara County to Kern County as “interstate.” The reclassification purports to shift oversight over the pipelines from the State Fire Marshal to PHMSA even though the pipelines originate at Las Flores Canyon in Santa Barbara County. Before December 17, 2025, PHMSA had classified these onshore pipelines as intrastate pipelines subject to State safety regulation and oversight. On December 22, 2025, PHMSA issued an order approving Sable’s plan to restart oil production based on President Trump’s bogus “National Energy Emergency” Executive Order that Attorney General Bonta has previously challenged.

The onshore pipelines have been shut down for a decade since the 2015 Refugio Beach oil spill, when a corroded segment of one pipeline ruptured and released hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil near Santa Barbara. The oil spill caused serious harm to public health and safety including releasing hazardous oil and fumes that sickened communities, contaminated coastal waters, harmed hundreds of marine mammals and seabirds, and shut down beaches and fisheries for months — damaging local economies. It resulted in a Consent Decree — to which PHMSA was a party — that expressly acknowledged and approved the State Fire Marshal’s role in reviewing and approving any planned restart of the onshore pipelines. PHMSA’s current position represents a significant departure from this agreement and the way in which PHMSA historically viewed the pipelines.

In the petition, the Attorney General and the State Fire Marshal allege that PHMSA’s orders were arbitrary and capricious and violate the Administrative Procedure Act.

OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta, leading a coalition of 20 attorneys general, yesterday filed an amicus brief in support of Minnesota’s lawsuit challenging the Trump Administration’s extraordinary campaign of lawlessness during its deployment of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Border Patrol to the Twin Cities area of Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Over the course of just a few weeks, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has sent more than 3,000 federal agents into the area. These agents have fatally shot one resident, Renee Good, seriously wounded others, attacked peaceful protestors, and systematically conducted unconstitutional stops and arrests. In the brief, Attorney General Bonta and the coalition urge the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota to order an immediate halt to the federal government’s lawless actions — actions that are visiting unacceptable harm on Minnesota, its cities, and people, and show unprecedented disregard for foundational constitutional principles. 

“These aggressive and militaristic tactics sanctioned by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and carried out by CBP Commander Greg Bovino blatantly disregard well-established policing norms, state sovereignty, and the sanctity of life,” said Attorney General Bonta. “Just days after Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we are continuing his fight and core belief that an injustice against one is an injustice against all. I urge the court to block the Trump Administration’s lawless actions. As the President himself has said, Minnesota is just the beginning, and if left unchecked, he will no doubt go into and threaten the safety, autonomy, and well-being of more states and communities.”

Beginning in December 2025, DHS began to threaten an escalation in enforcement targeting Minnesota and the Twin Cities area. One operation, dubbed “Operation Metro Surge” — what ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons has called the agency’s “largest immigration operation ever” — follows Donald Trump’s campaign promise of an aggressive mass deportation program that would be the largest in American history. Throughout the operation, public reporting has indicated that Secretary Noem has deployed as many as 3,000 federal immigration officers to Minnesota. Of that number, 2,000 are ICE personnel, hundreds are Border Patrol agents, and others are from U.S. Justice Department agencies. More recently, President Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act, and it is reported that the Pentagon is possibly preparing to deploy 1,500 troops to Minnesota. These actions have endangered public safety, with local law enforcement agencies being forced to divert large portions of their forces to respond to unrest caused by the federal officers.  

Since Minnesota filed its lawsuit, violence by ICE agents has only escalated. Just one week after the fatal shooting of Renee Good, a federal law enforcement officer in Minneapolis shot another person in the leg. ICE also exploded a tear gas canister underneath a car carrying a couple and six children, trapping them inside their vehicle, rendering a six-month old child unconscious, and requiring a mother to administer CPR to her infant child. This extreme conduct is ripping at the fabric of society and every aspect of daily life for Minnesotans is being affected. Pregnant women are afraid to go to their prenatal appointments for fear that they or their loved ones will be detained by federal agents. Vibrant shopping centers have turned into ghost towns, and businesses report 50% to 80% in revenue losses due to the presence of immigration officers. As a result of the threats to public safety caused by DHS, more than 100 schools were temporarily shut down in the Minneapolis Public School system, affecting 30,000 children, and school attendance continues to drop with families afraid to send their kids to school.

In their brief, Attorney General Bonta and the coalition argue that a temporary restraining order is important to protect the public from these deliberately aggressive and unlawful immigration enforcement practices. They highlight that these tactics threaten sovereign powers — like policing and promoting the public safety, health, and welfare of the people — that the Constitution reserves for the states. 

Attorney General Bonta is committed to fighting the Trump Administration’s unlawful militarized tactics. He previously led a coalition in filing an amicus brief opposing unlawful immigration stops in the Central Valley and led a multistate coalition in seeking a temporary restraining order to stop ICE and CBP from engaging in unlawful practices in Los Angeles. Attorney General Bonta recently secured a separate decision by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ending the continued federalization and deployment of California National Guard troops in and around Los Angeles. 

In filing the brief, Attorney General Bonta is joined by the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawai’i, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.