California on Thursday sued the federal government in an effort to halt any attempts to tie public safety and disaster funding to election-related demands.
The lawsuit says the Trump administration is placing conditions on states receiving federal funding — totaling billions annually — meant to help prepare for, respond to or protect against catastrophic disasters to election administration conditions.
While the U.S. Constitution allows states to administer and set rules for their own elections, the lawsuit says the Trump administration has tethered the Homeland Security Grant Program to elections. States could lose out on at least 20% of this FEMA grant funding, the lawsuit alleges, if they do not verify the citizenship of everyone in their voter databases, transition voting systems to equipment that reads hand-marked paper ballots, conduct post-election audits and more.
California, along with the more than two dozen states on the lawsuit, allege the federal government is violating the Administrative Procedure Act, arguing the federal government cannot impose conditions on funding without congressional approval.
“Time after time, courts have told Trump’s corrupt administration that it can’t coerce California into doing its bidding by threatening to withhold public safety funding,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement.
“Yet, they’re coming back for more,” Newsom, a Democrat, said. This time they’re demanding states rewrite their own election laws to access money that pays for public safety readiness and response, and that Congress already approved. We simply won’t allow it.”
A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
An unnamed FEMA spokesperson, in an email, chalked the lawsuit up to a “partisan pushback from” California and the other states.
“We fully expected these left-wing politicians to oppose common-sense measures designed to protect election security and safeguard the integrity of American democracy,” the email said.
“Election security is national security, and protecting our critical infrastructure remains a top priority for the Trump administration,” the email continued. “Concerns over voting processes, data security and registration practices have made it clear that action is required. This year, states must take critical, common-sense steps to protect U.S. elections before receiving their full Homeland Security Grant Program awards. These new requirements will preserve election integrity.”
The lawsuit is one of scores that have challenged the Trump administration over its repeated effort to browbeat mostly Democratic states into complying with its priorities to get billions of dollars in federal funding. The strategy has been used on everything from education funding to domestic violence grants to highway funding.
The courts have repeatedly found this strategy to be unlawful and unconstitutional. A ruling last year barred the administration from putting conditions on other FEMA funding, and a second ruling this year blocked the administration from redirecting DHS funding away from states not seen as supportive of its agenda.
“The States face losing billions of dollars in federal funding, are being put in a position of relinquishing their sovereign right to decide how to use their own police officers, are at risk of losing the trust built between local law enforcement and immigrant communities, and will have to scale back, reconsider, or cancel ongoing transportation projects,” U.S. District Judge John McConnell Jr. wrote last year, when he barred the Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy from cutting off transportation funds to states that did not comply with immigration enforcement actions.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said he expects this lawsuit to be successful, given previous wins challenging the federal government.
“President Trump has little support for both his mass deportation agenda and his baseless claims of election fraud, so instead, he’s trying to bully state and local governments into adopting his preferred policies in exchange for much-needed funding,” Bonta, a Democrat, said. “Our communities deserve better than to have essential resources caught up in political games.”
President Donald Trump has often repeated, without evidence, claims that his 2020 election loss was invalid. And he’s railed against how blue states conduct their elections.
With California specifically, the president has taken umbrage with how long it takes for ballots to be counted and the election certified and the use of a system where every registered voter is mailed a ballot.
In November, when voters overwhelmingly approved a congressional redistricting plan, Trump alleged the election system was “rigged,” without citing any evidence.
He also suggested last year withholding future federal aid for the recovery of California’s most devastating wildfires until the state establishes a voter ID law.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.