Illinois joins suit after feds threaten billions in funding over Trump order targeting trans people — again
Illinois has joined 11 other states in suing the Trump administration over its attempt to condition billions of dollars of federal funding on discrimination against trans people in accordance with Trump’s previous executive orders.
The federal government is trying to condition billions in federal funding on Trump’s executive orders targeting transgender people, saying institutions are out of compliance with Title IX for not falling in line with Trump’s executive orders attempting to coerce states into excluding transgender people from sports, removing their ability to correct their documents and other rights awarded to cisgender people.
The funds being halted would impact any institution that receives funding under Title IX, such as schools, colleges, universities, 4-H programs, non-governmental organization programs, sports programs and other education-related awards to detention facilities.
The suit, filed in Rhode Island District Court on Tuesday, said the administration was once again overreaching in trying to condition funds that have already been signed off on by Congress.
In Illinois’ case, they say it would force government agencies like the secretary of state’s office to violate Illinois state laws such as the Illinois Human Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination against trans people in the workplace, at schools and elsewhere.
“The president cannot amend statutory law by executive order, and HHS’ efforts to carry out the directives of the Gender Ideology Executive Order by attempting to shoehorn them into Title IX are unlawful on multiple grounds,” the suit reads.
The Department of Health and Human Services didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Joining the suit with Raoul are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Delaware, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.
It’s the latest in a series of legal actions filed by Raoul and other top state legal officials.
Last month, HHS unveiled a series of regulatory actions designed to block access to gender-affirming care for minors, including threats to cut off federal Medicaid and Medicare funding from hospitals that provide the care to minors. It prompted a 20-state lawsuit, including Illinois, which then led to the federal government agreeing to hold off on its proposals until at least mid-April.
That came months after Illinois joined in a separate lawsuit with more than a dozen other attorneys general alleging the Trump administration overstepped its authority by threatening health care providers with federal investigations and criminal prosecutions, according to a statement announcing the lawsuit.
In the most recent suits, the attorneys general called the Trump administration’s measures “arbitrary and capricious,” mirroring language from other successful cases filed by similar coalitions — including recent judicial decisions blocking the Trump administration from withholding disaster relief and transportation funding from states that didn’t fall in line with the administration’s demands on immigration.
The attorneys general in part point to the new funding requirements relying on an executive order directed at federal agencies, not states, as well as a 2020 Supreme Court ruling that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act protects transgender people from discrimination.
“Whatever the vague ‘Gender Conditions’ mean, the Gender Ideology EO’s purpose — and thus the Agency’s purpose in referencing it in the Gender Conditions — is to exclude transgender, intersex, nonbinary, and gender-diverse individuals and make denial of their existence official policy,” the suit reads. “This discriminatory purpose is contrary to existing interpretations of Title IX by courts and other federal agencies, including HHS.”