Federal Accountability

“If President Trump wants to stop losing in court, he should stop breaking the law.” 

OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today secured a permanent injunction from the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island blocking the Trump Administration’s effort to unlawfully impose immigration enforcement requirements on billions of dollars in annual U.S. Department of Transportation grants. The final ruling follows multistate litigation and a preliminary injunction. In issuing a permanent injunction, the Court found that the Trump Administration has “blatantly overstepped their statutory authority, violated the APA, and transgressed well-settled constitutional limitations on federal funding conditions. The Constitution demands the Court set aside this lawless behavior.”

“If President Trump wants to stop losing in court, he should stop breaking the law. The courts have repeatedly and firmly rejected the Trump Administration’s efforts to infringe on states’ constitutional right to set their own policy priorities,” said Attorney General Bonta. “California will not be a pawn in the President’s political games. We will not be bullied into doing the Trump Administration’s bidding. I’m grateful to the court for putting a stop to this nonsense and ensuring we are able to continue to receive vital transportation dollars that support our public infrastructure and keep our roads safe.”  

California receives billions in grant funding from the Department of Transportation 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.

OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today issued the following statement in response to the news that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will only be providing partial Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for the month of November. This morning, in a new legal filing, the Trump Administration wrote the following: “Per orders issued by the United States District Courts for the Districts of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, [the Trump Administration] intends to deplete SNAP contingency funds completely and provide reduced SNAP benefits for November 2025.” Last week, Attorney General Bonta co-led a coalition of 23 attorneys general and three governors in filing a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts against the USDA and its Secretary, Brooke Rollins, over the unlawful suspension of November SNAP benefits.

“My fellow attorneys general and I took the Trump Administration to court because they chose to suspend November SNAP benefits. That decision was not only unlawful, as two federal courts ruled on Friday; it has also forced the 42 million individuals who rely on SNAP to scramble and figure out where their next meal is going to come from. Americans of all political persuasions have rightfully been outraged,” said Attorney General Bonta. “This morning, we learned that the Trump Administration has decided, at long last and in the face of growing public pressure, to partially fund November SNAP benefits. This is an important development, but the reality is that SNAP benefits won’t become immediately available to recipients. This lag is problematic and the result of President Trump's failure to follow the law until ordered to do so. In addition, today's announcement by the Trump Administration represents a moral failure. We are the richest country in the world, and the federal government could fully fund November SNAP benefits if it wanted to. Recent images and videos of long lines at food pantries nationwide highlight the gravity of the current situation — we must continue to care for those in greatest need. My office remains focused on holding the Trump Administration accountable for its illegal actions.”   

A copy of this morning’s filing by the Trump Administration can be found here.

Lawsuit challenges new rule that could exclude employers that the President doesn’t like

OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today co-led a coalition of 22 attorneys general in filing a lawsuit challenging new U.S. Department of Education regulations that could exclude people with federal student loans from Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) eligibility based on whether their employers engage in actions that the Trump Administration deems to have a “substantial illegal purpose.” The rule threatens PSLF eligibility for organizations that are engaged in important and legal activities, such as providing legal services to immigrants, providing gender-affirming care to minors, participating in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, or engaging in civil protest and the right to assembly. As of 2024, more than 81,000 Californians have received over $6 billion in PSLF forgiveness. Last month, Attorney General Bonta led a multistate coalition in sending a letter to the Department opposing a proposed version of the rule. In the lawsuit filed today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, the attorneys general ask the court to declare the now final rule unlawful, vacate it, and bar the Department from enforcing or implementing it. 

“Millions of Americans shaped their lives, made long-term career decisions, and took on deep financial burdens based on the promise that, if they dedicated their lives to public service and made student loan payments for 10 years, their government would support them. Now, the Trump Administration is pulling the rug from under hardworking Americans who absolutely deserve what they were promised,” said Attorney General Bonta. “The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program is a Bush-era, bipartisan-backed effort that encourages generations of young people to build careers in public service. Make no mistake: This is the latest example of the Trump Administration’s weaponization of the federal government to go after people it does not agree with, all the while betraying and eroding the very institutions that uphold our democracy. We’ll see the President in court.”

In 2007, a bipartisan Congress under the Bush Administration created PSLF to encourage college graduates to work in the public sector, where salaries are often lower than at for-profit companies. The PSLF program enables public servants who work in eligible government and nonprofit roles to have their qualifying federal student loans forgiven after 10 years of qualifying service and payments. It helps public service employers recruit and retain skilled workers who might otherwise be forced to turn to private sector employment to afford to pay their student loans. Many California state employees are eligible for, actively pursuing, or have already benefited from PSLF as a means of managing the significant student debt that they incurred in preparing for skilled public service careers.

The U.S. Department of Education’s rule would enable the Secretary of Education to unilaterally disqualify employers from PSLF if she deems them to have a “substantial illegal purpose.” The vagueness of the rule could empower the Trump Administration to target politically disfavored conduct and may threaten PSLF eligibility for organizations that are engaged in longstanding and legal activities. The rule creates uncertainty as to who is an eligible employer and will deter student borrowers from entering public service. The resulting uncertainty of the rule will undercut the state’s ability to recruit and retain skilled employees.  

This rule is the latest attempt by the Trump Administration to harness the power of the federal government to target conduct and entities, states, and individuals it does not like — many of whom are at the forefront of critical sectors, processes, and programs that serve to uphold democratic norms. Within the last 10 months, the Trump Administration has used its power to:

•  Prosecute people it views as political enemies;
•  Threaten media that criticizes President Trump;
•  Go after law firms that represent people who President Trump perceives as enemies (here, here, and here); and
•  Target critical transportation, homeland security, and public safety and victim services funding for states engaging in conduct it doesn’t like. 

In the complaint filed today, the attorneys general argue the Department’s rule is contrary to law and in excess of statutory authority under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), as the Higher Education Act defines eligible employers to include government agencies and 501(c)(3) non-profits with no exceptions and provides no grant of discretion to the Secretary of Education to determine otherwise. The attorneys general also argue the rule is arbitrary and capricious under the APA, as the rule fails to set out clear standards for when a government or nonprofit organization has a “substantial illegal purpose,” including by failing to define key elements of the inquiry, failing to describe the evidence ED may use to make such a determination, and failing to set out clear procedures to provide notice and due process to employers found to exist for a substantially illegal purpose.

Attorney General Bonta is co-leading today's lawsuit alongside the attorneys general of Colorado, Massachusetts, and New York. They are joined by the attorneys general of Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawai’i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin. 

A copy of the complaint can be found here.

OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Governor Gavin Newsom today asked the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to restart proceedings and block the ongoing, unnecessary, and baseless federalization and deployment of the California National Guard in Los Angeles. On September 9, citing concerns regarding its jurisdiction, the District Court stayed proceedings related to California’s motion for a preliminary injunction to block the Trump Administration’s August order federalizing California National Guard troops through Election Day. On October 29, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the District Court has jurisdiction. Attorney General Bonta and Governor Newsom today respectfully ask the District Court to restart proceedings and issue a preliminary injunction blocking any continued deployment of California National Guard troops in the Los Angeles area and return these troops to the Governor's command. 

“The Trump Administration believes it can keep California’s National Guard federalized and deployed wherever, forever, and for any purpose — no further justification necessary,” said Attorney General Bonta. “That is just not true, and we’re asking the court to issue a ruling that says as much without delay. The Ninth Circuit’s recent order made clear that this remains a live issue, and we are confident that when we make our case, we will prevail.” 

“President Trump turned the National Guard against the communities they swore to serve. This is unlawful and immoral,” said Governor Newsom.“Under state direction, California National Guard members have always been deployed in support of our communities – acting as surge medical staff in crises, helping with wildfire management, supporting fentanyl interdiction, and now, as the President withholds food stamps from hungry families, the Guard is distributing food to those in need. The National Guard deserves better than being treated like Trump’s toy soldiers – and when they’re returned to California command, we’ll get them back to doing the real work they signed up to do.”

Since the District Court stayed consideration of California’s motion, the Trump Administration’s unlawful orders have multiplied and expanded further. In the past month, the Trump Administration has federalized and deployed National Guard troops to two additional states — Oregon and Illinois — and deployed 214 federalized California National Guardmembers from Los Angeles to Oregon, then shuffled 14 of those same troops to Illinois. 

In the motion, Attorney General Bonta and Governor Newsom argue that 10 U.S.C. § 12406 does not authorize the sort of broad-ranging, never-ending federalization and military occupation of American cities that the Trump Administration is perpetrating. They assert that there was no colorable basis to again federalize the California National Guard in Los Angeles on August 5, and there remains no basis for keeping them federalized and deployed in California now. 

BACKGROUND 

Attorney General Bonta is committed to holding President Trump and his Administration accountable for overreaching their authority under the law and infringing on Californians’ constitutional rights. In June, Attorney General Bonta and Governor Newsom filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump Administration’s unlawful orders to federalize the California National Guard and utilize National Guard troops for civilian law enforcement in Los Angeles in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act. That same week, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted California emergency relief, blocking the federalization order and returning command of the California National Guard to Governor Newsom; that order is currently stayed by the Ninth Circuit pending appeal.

In August, the Attorney General’s Office presented evidence of Posse Comitatus Act violations during a three-day trial before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The Court subsequently granted a permanent injunction enjoining the Trump Administration from engaging in the same or similar activity in the future. The Court’s order is temporarily paused while the Ninth Circuit considers the federal government’s motion for a stay.

Earlier this month, Attorney General Bonta joined Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield in asking for, and subsequently securing, an order from the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon blocking the Trump Administration’s deployment of federalized California National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon. He also submitted new filings to the Ninth Circuit highlighting significant changes to the facts on the ground since June that undermine the Trump Administration’s arguments for staying the Northern California District Court’s orders, including its deployment of federalized California National Guard troops to Portland, and later, to Chicago.

Attorney General Bonta has previously supported Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s, Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield’s and D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb’s lawsuits challenging the Trump Administration’s unlawful deployment of National Guard troops to their cities. Last week, Attorney General Bonta filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in Trump v. Illinois opposing the Trump Administration’s nearly limitless conception of presidential authority to federalize the National Guard and the activities those troops can engage in.

A copy of today’s motion can be found here.

Urges Trump Administration to fund November SNAP benefits expeditiously

OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today released the following statement in response to decisions issued by two federal district courts — one in Massachusetts and the other in Rhode Island — holding the Trump Administration accountable for unlawfully suspending Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for the month of November. 

“Today, not one, but two federal district courts determined that the Trump Administration acted unlawfully when it chose to suspend SNAP benefits for the month of November. The Trump Administration knows that it has a legal duty to fund SNAP benefits, even during the current government shutdown. In fact, just last month, the USDA admitted as much in a document that it later deleted from its website,” said Attorney General Bonta. “SNAP benefits provide an essential hunger safety net to an average of 5.5 million Californians each month. Simply put, the stakes could not be higher. The Trump Administration must move expeditiously to fund November SNAP benefits.”

Earlier this week, Attorney General Bonta co-led a coalition of 23 attorneys general and three governors in filing a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and its Secretary, Brooke Rollins, over the unlawful suspension of November SNAP benefits. The coalition also filed a request for a temporary restraining order, which the court considered during an in-person hearing yesterday. In that case, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts issued an order today stating that USDA’s SNAP “contingency reserve . . . must be deployed to fund SNAP benefits.” The court also determined that Attorney General Bonta and the coalition are “likely to succeed on their claim that [the Trump Administration’s] suspension of SNAP benefits is unlawful.” 

In a related lawsuit brought by a coalition of local governments, nonprofit organizations, small businesses, and workers’ rights organizations, the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island issued an order directing USDA to fund November SNAP benefits using at least the over $5 billion in contingency funds that it has available.

A copy of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts’ decision can be found here.

Joins multistate coalition opposing U.S. DOJ subpoena to access private medical records

OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today announced joining a coalition of 15 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The brief urges the court to limit the U.S. Department of Justice’s (U.S. DOJ) subpoena targeting the release of private medical records, including patient records, related to gender-affirming care at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).

“Subpoenas targeting the medical records of transgender youth are an assault on privacy,” said Attorney General Bonta. “Healthcare decisions should be between patients, families, and doctors — not in the hands of the government. That’s why I am standing with a coalition of attorneys general, urging the court to quash or limit U.S. DOJ’s subpoena of documents relating to medically necessary, gender-affirming care.”

Since taking office, the Trump Administration has attempted to end lawful medical care that it disfavors. On day one, President Trump issued an Executive Order declaring gender identity a “false” idea. A week later, the President issued another Executive Order attempting to strip federal funding from institutions that provide lifesaving gender-affirming care for young people under the age of 19, with the ultimate goal of ending all gender-affirming care for adolescents. In April, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memo directing U.S. DOJ to investigate healthcare providers and pharmaceutical companies that engage in gender-affirming care. 

On June 12, U.S. DOJ sent CHOP an administrative subpoena, seeking information and documents relating to the hospital’s provision of gender-affirming care. This subpoena demands sensitive medical records and personally identifying information about adolescent patients and their families. For example, U.S. DOJ is seeking patient names, dates of birth, home addresses, and social security numbers. 

In their brief, the attorneys general urge the court to limit U.S. DOJ’s subpoena. They argue that:

• The federal government is clearly seeking to intimidate medical providers from offering critical and medically necessary care to transgender youth, even in states like California where such care is legal and protected.
• As part of this subpoena request, U.S. DOJ is interpreting the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) as outlawing medical providers from prescribing FDA approved medications to their patients for off label use. If U.S. DOJ’s interpretation of the FDCA were accepted, entire fields of medicine could see their practitioners at risk of criminal conviction merely for offering routine, evidence-based treatments. As the amicus brief points out, some studies estimate that as much as 80% of drugs prescribed for children are prescribed for off label uses. 

The states submitting the brief have enacted their own laws, policies, and protections, for transgender residents, including transgender youth under the age of 19. California has enacted laws recognizing the right to access gender-affirming care and shielding people who access or provide gender-affirming care from civil or criminal penalties by out-of-state jurisdictions. 

Earlier this month, Attorney General Bonta filed an amicus brief opposing U.S. DOJ’s subpoena for patient records related to gender affirming care at Boston Children’s Hospital. California continues its efforts to stand firmly in support of healthcare policies that respect the dignity and rights of all people.

Joining Attorney General Bonta in submitting the amicus brief are the attorneys general of Connecticut, Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington. 

A copy of the amicus brief can be found here.

OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today joined a coalition 23 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in Donald J. Trump v. Lisa D. Cook, a case concerning President Trump’s attempt to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook from her position on the Federal Reserve Board. The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve is the primary entity that oversees the Federal Reserve System, the U.S. central bank, which is tasked with promoting financial system stability, supervising and regulating financial institutions, and promoting consumer protection. In the brief, the attorneys general ask the U.S. Supreme Court to allow Governor Cook to remain in her post while litigation in the case proceeds, citing concerns that given the Federal Reserve’s responsibilities, increased institutional uncertainty from the fallout of Governor Cook’s removal would cause downstream economic harms on states.

“The Federal Reserve Board serves all Americans by promoting the health and stability of the U.S. economy and financial system. By continuing his attempt to remove Governor Lisa Cook — one of seven essential board members — President Trump is not only undermining the Board’s independence but also threatening to throw an institution that safeguards California’s economy into chaos,” said Attorney General Bonta. “From designing their state budgets to taking out a mortgage, the State of California and its people depend on stability, independence, and good governance at the Federal Reserve. I urge the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the preliminary injunction that has allowed Governor Cook to continue her work on the Board of Governors while litigation proceeds.”

In August 2025, President Trump attempted to remove Lisa Cook from the Board of Governors “for cause.” The purported “cause” was an allegation that Governor Cook had defrauded mortgage lenders by claiming two primary residences to receive lower interest rates in 2021, prior to her appointment to the Federal Reserve. The U.S. Department of Justice has opened an investigation into the matter, but the allegations have not been substantiated to date. For the Federal Reserve Board to function as Congress intended, dismissals of governors for cause must mean something more specific than an unreviewable reason left entirely to the President’s discretion. Otherwise, “for cause” then means “for whatever reason the President decides,” which is nothing more than termination at the President’s discretion because he does not like the person or the decisions the board is making — an approach to governing the U.S. financial system that Congress has rejected. Despite the lack of evidence, a premature investigation, and a District Court ruling that Governor Cook should stay in her post while the investigation proceeds, President Trump is again attempting to move forward with the removal of Governor Cook. 

In the brief, the attorneys general argue that allowing President Trump to immediately remove Governor Cook from the Board of Governors would undermine the judiciary's important role in ensuring the President acts within his authority. Concerningly, given the Federal Reserve Board’s critical role in promoting the stability of the financial system, Governor Cook’s sudden remove is expected to likely result in higher and more volatile inflation, unemployment, and market conditions that may harm states by: 

• Undermining the projections used to craft state budgets; 
• Increasing costs to provide state services; and 
• Increasing costs for state services to support people who are unemployed. 

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

A copy of the amicus brief can be found here.

OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today, alongside a multistate coalition, announced securing a preliminary injunction blocking the U.S. Department of Education (Department) from unlawfully discontinuing grants awarded through Congressionally-established school-based mental health grant programs, including millions of dollars awarded to 21 local education agencies and universities in California. The preliminary injunction, issued by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, blocks the Trump Administration from implementing its discontinuation decisions against nearly 50 grantees in plaintiff states, while the lawsuit proceeds. The court’s order also prevents the Trump Administration from reinstituting the discontinuation decisions based on the same or similar reasons against those nearly 50 grantees.

On October 21, U.S. District Court Judge Kymberly Evanson rejected the Department’s motion to dismiss the case. In the court’s decision issuing the preliminary injunction, the court held that the States will likely succeed in showing that the Department acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner, violating the Administrative Procedure Act. The court concluded that the Department did not explain its discontinuation decisions and did not consider the valuable time and resources grantees invested in their grant projects. The court limited the injunction to grantees that had submitted declarations to the court explaining how they’d been harmed by the Department’s discontinuation notices.

“The court’s decision requires the Trump Administration’s Department of Education to provide thousands of students in our state a fair shot at accessing crucial mental health services that support their success and wellbeing, while our litigation continues,” said Attorney General Bonta. “Instead of fulfilling its mission of promoting educational excellence and equity for all students, the Department of Education is using baseless and unlawful excuses to rip funding from projects that provide necessary mental health services — especially in our low-income and rural communities. The court’s ruling brings us one step closer to ensuring the Department of Education follows the law when it makes mental health grant award decisions in the future.”

BACKGROUND:

On June 30, 2025, Attorney General Bonta joined a coalition of 16 states in suing the Trump Administration’s Department of Education over its unlawful decision to discontinue grants awarded through Congressionally-established school-based mental health grant programs: the Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant Program and the School-Based Mental Health Services Grant Program. These grants support students in high-need, low-income, and rural schools, and the mental health services are critical to students’ well-being, safety, and academic success. The lawsuit seeks injunctive and declaratory relief requiring the Department to follow the law and determine whether to continue to award funding based on the grantees’ performance, and to prevent the Department from unlawfully reallocating the funding to other grantees. 

The attempted discontinuances targeted a bipartisan act of Congress that appropriated $1 billion for mental health supports in schools after the tragic deaths of 19 students and 2 teachers during a mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. During the first year of funding, grantees served nearly 775,000 students and hired nearly 1,300 school mental health professionals, according to the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP). NASP also found a 50% reduction in suicide risk at high-need schools, decreases in absenteeism and behavioral issues, and increases in positive student-staff engagement based on data from sampled programs.

Despite the success of these mental health programs, on or about April 29, 2025, the Department sent boilerplate notices to 44 grantees in California, including local education agencies and institutes of higher education, claiming that the grantees’ projects conflicted with the Trump Administration’s priorities and would not be continued. The notices claimed the Department intends to reallocate funds based on new priorities of “merit, fairness, and excellence in education,” providing little to no insight into the basis for the discontinuance, while threatening projects years in the making. However, in the press, the Trump Administration implied that it targeted Plaintiff States’ grants for their perceived diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts, which the States argue is not a legal basis for discontinuation. The attorneys general argue that the Trump Administration’s decision to discontinue funding through a vague boilerplate notice, without any mention of grantees’ performance, violates the Administrative Procedure Act and is a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Spending Clause and guarantee of Separation of Powers.

A copy of order is available here. 

45th lawsuit by Attorney General Bonta against Trump Administration urges court to immediately restore SNAP funding relied upon by 42 million Americans, including 5.5 million Californians

SACRAMENTO — California Attorney General Rob Bonta is co-leading a coalition of 23 attorneys general and three governors in filing a lawsuit today against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and its Secretary Brooke Rollins for indefinitely suspending Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits during the federal government shutdown. Filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, the lawsuit points out that USDA has funds available to it that are sufficient to cover all or a large portion of November SNAP benefits, and that suspending benefits — when USDA is sitting on billions of dollars in contingency funds — is both contrary to law and arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). The coalition is also filing a request for a temporary restraining order and asking the court to block the USDA’s suspension order because of the irreparable harm their residents are facing.

“Let’s be clear about what’s happening: For the first time ever, SNAP benefits will not be available to the millions of low-income individuals who depend on them to put food on the table,” said Attorney General Rob Bonta. “November SNAP benefits can and must be provided, even with the government shutdown. USDA not only has authority to use contingency funds, it has a legal duty to spend all available dollars to fund SNAP benefits. The Trump Administration, however, has chosen instead to play politics with this essential safety net that so many people depend on — including 5.5 million individuals in California alone. With the holidays around the corner, we are seeing costs for groceries continue to increase and food banks facing unprecedented demand. We are taking a stand because families will experience hunger and malnutrition if the Trump Administration gets its way.” 

“While Donald Trump parades around the world trying to repair the economic damage he's done with his incompetence, he's denying food to millions of Americans who will go hungry next month,” said Governor Gavin Newsom. “It's cruel and speaks to his basic lack of humanity. He doesn't care about the people of this country, only himself."

On September 30, USDA issued a Lapse of Funding Plan, in which it acknowledged that Congress intended for SNAP operations to continue during a government shutdown and that it has “multi-year contingency funds” on hand for just that eventuality. As of late September, that contingency fund stood at approximately $6 billion. On October 10, after the shutdown began, USDA sent a letter to state agencies directing them to put an indefinite hold on November benefits while it began “the process of fact finding and information gathering to be prepared in case a contingency plan must be implemented.” USDA provided no further guidance for two weeks, prompting Attorney General Bonta and a coalition of attorneys general to demand an update on USDA’s contingency plan. The same day, October 24, USDA issued a decision formally suspending SNAP benefits indefinitely. And, in a separate memo, it wrote that USDA cannot legally use the $6 billion contingency fund to provide SNAP benefits — the opposite of what it said previously. It also said it could not use that money because it might be needed for disaster relief in the event of a future hurricane or tornado, even though the agency has previously said it could use contingency funds to cover SNAP benefits during a funding lapse.

SNAP provides monthly food benefits to low-income families in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. In California, SNAP is known as the CalFresh Program and is administered by the California Department of Social Services. SNAP provides an essential hunger safety net to an average of 5.5 million Californians per month. 63.2% of SNAP participants in California are children or elderly. Further, many veterans — nearly 85,000 in California in recent years — live in households that depend on SNAP for their nutrition needs.

In today’s lawsuit, Attorney General Bonta and the coalition argue that:

• Under federal law, USDA has an obligation to furnish SNAP benefits. The agency cannot simply suspend all benefits indefinitely, while refusing to spend billions in contingency funds that can — and must — be used to fund SNAP benefits for eligible households. This refusal is contrary to law and violates the APA. 
• USDA has historically funded SNAP benefits during prior lapses in appropriations.  In addition, USDA has previously — in prior years and as recently as last month — taken the position that contingency funds are available to fund benefits during shortfalls. In doing an about face and suspending November SNAP benefits without adequately considering the impacts on states, among other things, the agency violated the APA’s requirement to engage in reasoned decision-making.

The lawsuit is co-led by Attorney General Bonta, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell, and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison. They are joined by the attorneys general of Connecticut, Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawai’i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin, as well as the governors of Kansas, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania.

A copy of the lawsuit is available here. The request for a temporary restraining order is available here.

California relies on homeland security funding to prevent, prepare for, protect against, and respond to acts of terrorism and other emergencies  

OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta joined a multistate coalition in filing an amended complaint seeking to block the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) latest attempt to withhold homeland security funding by imposing an unreasonable new condition for states to receive Emergency Management Performance Grant funds. On September 29, the coalition filed a lawsuit against the Trump Administration after they received grants that were significantly lower than anticipated — without justification and seemingly to punish the states for their sovereign decision to use their law enforcement resources to protect public safety rather than assist in federal immigration enforcement. The next day, the coalition secured a temporary court order halting the illegal diversion of this funding toward states with policies that the President prefers. In a new filing, Attorney General Bonta and the coalition are amending that lawsuit to include DHS’s attempt to impose an illegal new condition requiring states to certify to their current populations — instead of relying on census data—making an impossible ask for data the states do not have in order to receive critical emergency management funding.

“The Trump Administration continues to throw things at the wall to see what sticks; the answer is: none of it. If the President wants to stop losing in court, he should stop breaking the law, not wasting our time with yet another  ridiculous effort to withhold homeland security funding by imposing an impossible — and obviously illegal — new condition,” said Attorney General Bonta “DHS wants us to certify to population information that only DHS has, on a timeline that lacks basic commonsense. This is part and parcel for an Administration that is more show than substance, and that has openly declared that it does not want to give a dollar of federal funding to states with policies it disagrees with, regardless of what is required by the Constitution and the law. I urge the court to require FEMA to distribute homeland-security funding without this illegal new condition.” 

On January 20, 2025, his first day in office, President Trump directed DHS to “ensure that so-called ‘sanctuary’ jurisdictions do not receive access to Federal funds.” The President deemed certain states and jurisdictions in “lawless insurrection,” despite the fact that courts have upheld laws like California’s SB 54 as constitutional and consistent with federal immigration law and firmly rebuked the Trump Administration’s attempts to condition federal funds on assistance with immigration enforcement. Just last month, the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island issued a permanent injunction in California’s lawsuit blocking the Trump Administration’s effort to unlawfully impose immigration enforcement requirements on billions of dollars in annual DHS grants. 

Soon after, on Saturday, September 27, FEMA issued award notifications for its single largest grant program — the Homeland Security Grant Program, which totals approximately $1 billion in funds annually. Consistent with federal law, FEMA had previously issued notices of funding opportunity preliminarily allocating the funding among state recipients based on each jurisdiction’s “relative threat, vulnerability, and consequences from acts of terrorism.” According to that notice, California expected to receive approximately $165 million in grant funding. However, when California received the grant notification, the award was only $110 million, reflecting a 33% reduction. Some states saw even sharper cuts: Illinois received a 69% reduction in funding, and New York received a 79% reduction. At the same time, many other states saw increases to their allocation upwards of 100%.  

A defining factor in this reallocation appears to be whether a state was a so-called “sanctuary” jurisdiction or not. In short, the current Administration appears to be taking money from its perceived “enemies” and reallocating it to its “friends.”  DHS also required states for the first time, to certify to their own populations — rather than DHS simply using census data to make that determination — and to identify a methodology to exclude “individuals that have been removed from the State pursuant to the immigration laws of the United States.” The Trump Administration is well aware that these real-time population figures are impossible to provide, and are made doubly impossible by the demand to incorporate information about deportations that DHS alone holds.

Attorney General Bonta and a coalition quickly challenged and secured a temporary restraining order blocking the illegal diversion of this funding to states with policies that the Trump Administration agrees with. In an amended complaint filed today, the coalition argue that DHS’s actions violate the Administrative Procedure Act and are ultra vires — and as such should be declared unlawful and set aside. The coalition asks the court to amend the awards to remove the illegal population certification condition and provide the coalition states with the full funding to protect their residents they are entitled to under the law. 

Attorney General Bonta joins the attorneys general of Illinois, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Vermont, and Washington, as well as the Governor of Pennsylvania.

A copy of the amended complaint can be found here.