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Public Citizen has filed 37 lawsuits against the administration since Donald Trump returned to power almost a year ago. (And there will be more.) We wanted to give you an update on all 37 lawsuits so far. We’ll start with the most recent, then work back from there.

First, one important note: Lawsuits against the federal government can move slowly. With the Trump regime acting so recklessly, this deliberate pace can be frustrating, to say the least. But even so, in 19 of these 37 cases — those marked with three asterisks (***) at the end of the entry — we have already either won the case outright, gotten a preliminary ruling that limits or delays whatever bad thing the regime is trying to do, or forced the administration to reveal information.

LAWSUIT #37 — GOVERNMENT ETHICS
DATE FILED: April 16, 2026
WHY WE SUED: To make the Trump administration provide records — under the Freedom of Information Act — about how, or even if, it looked into possible ethics concerns relating to employees of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
BACKGROUND: At the outset of his second term, Trump — along with Elon Musk, the richest person on the planet — concocted the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). They staffed it with an assortment of inexperienced outsiders, many from Musk’s own companies, some still in their teens. These “DOGE bros” immediately started infiltrating numerous federal agencies and interfering with critical government work, recklessly and often illegally (forming the basis of some of our earlier lawsuits against the regime — see below). In June of 2025, our friends at Campaign Legal Center, under the Freedom of Information Act, requested records from the Office of Government Ethics about communications related to potential conflicts of interest among DOGE employees. The administration has not yet produced any of the requested information, so, on behalf of Campaign Legal Center, we sued to force them to do so.
WHERE THINGS STAND: We are waiting for the administration’s response to our lawsuit.

LAWSUIT #36 — EXTORTING POORER COUNTRIES
DATE FILED: April 3, 2026
WHY WE SUED: To force the Trump administration to disclose exploitative “agreements” it has bullied poorer countries into signing — which give the United States access to valuable assets, including sensitive data and natural resources — by withholding critical health assistance.
BACKGROUND: The Trump regime has taken a sledgehammer to foreign aid. (By the way, while polls show that many Americans think foreign aid accounts for as much as half of all federal spending, in reality, only about 1% of the federal budget — just one penny out of every dollar — goes to foreign aid.) This assault on foreign aid is literally killing people. But that, apparently, is not sinister enough for the Trump regime. In recent months, the Trump administration has used foreign aid to essentially bully other countries into giving the regime access to their data and natural resources. Like the villain in a trite action movie, the Trump regime is extorting poorer countries and putting the lives of millions of people at risk so that American corporate tycoons and their MAGA cronies can get even richer. Worse still, the Trump administration is keeping the terms of these coercive agreements secret. Under the Freedom of Information Act, we requested copies of the agreements. After the regime failed to respond, we sued, asking a federal court to order the Trump administration to produce the relevant records so that the American people can know how the Trump regime is exploiting other countries — and putting lives at risk — in our names.
WHERE THINGS STAND: We are waiting for the administration’s response to our lawsuit.

LAWSUIT #35 — TRUMP’S GIANT VANITY ARCH
DATE FILED: February 19, 2026
WHY WE SUED: To stop the illegal construction of a gargantuan, self-aggrandizing arch that Trump wants to erect in Washington, D.C., just outside the hallowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery, across from the Lincoln Memorial.
BACKGROUND: This arch joins a litany of Trump vanity projects: banners bearing his scowling face hanging from government buildings all over our nation’s capital; his name affixed in golden letters to the storied Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.; his illegal demolition of the East Wing of the White House so that he can build a gaudy Billionaire Ballroom; and more. These are the types of things we expect from real-world despots and fictional authoritarians like Big Brother in George Orwell’s classic dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. But the law is clear: Trump does not have the authority to construct the arch without approval from Congress, which he does not have. Public Citizen, representing a group of Vietnam War veterans and an architectural historian, is suing in federal court to stop construction of Trump’s illegal vanity arch.
WHERE THINGS STAND: After we filed a motion for a preliminary injunction, the administration agreed to provide 14 days’ notice before beginning any demolition or construction on the site. Meanwhile, we are waiting for the administration’s written response to our lawsuit.***

LAWSUIT #34 — CATASTROPHIC CLIMATE DENIALISM
DATE FILED: February 18, 2026
WHY WE SUED: To confront the Trump regime’s climate denialism and its illegal attempt to undermine the Clean Air Act.
BACKGROUND: On February 12, Trump illegally repealed a critical element of U.S. environmental policy that is absolutely essential in the fight to avert climate disaster. We’re talking about something called the “endangerment finding” — a determination made under the landmark Clean Air Act that authorized the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate greenhouse gasses that pose a risk to the health or welfare of human beings. For over 15 years, the endangerment finding has formed the basis for the EPA’s actions to address climate change. But if the regime gets its way, “EPA” might as well stand for Enable Pollution Always. Public Citizen is part of a coalition of health and environmental groups that is suing Trump’s EPA in federal court for abandoning its duty to protect the American people from air pollution and to regulate the greenhouse gasses that fuel climate change.
WHERE THINGS STAND: We are waiting for the court to issue a schedule for next steps in the case.

LAWSUIT #33 — TRUMP’S ATTACK ON AUTHORIZED IMMIGRANT WORKERS
DATE FILED: February 13, 2026
WHY WE SUED: To challenge a rule from Trump’s Department of Transportation that prohibits asylum seekers, refugees, and DACA recipients — individuals who are legally authorized to work in the United States — from getting or renewing commercial driver’s licenses.
BACKGROUND: Last fall, we sued over a preliminary version of this discriminatory rule (see Lawsuit #23 below). The judges sided with us and put the rule on hold while the agency worked on finalizing it. The administration issued an essentially identical final rule, so we sued again, asking the court to block the final rule as well. The rule threatens the livelihoods of 200,000 truck drivers, bus drivers, and delivery drivers. It will also hurt countless businesses, both large and small — as well as schools and potentially millions of American consumers — that depend on these drivers. Again, these are people who are legally authorized to work here.
WHERE THINGS STAND: We have asked the court to expedite the next steps in the case and are waiting for its response.

LAWSUIT #32 — ILLEGAL “TRUMP GOLD CARD” VISA
DATE FILED: February 3, 2026
WHY WE SUED: To stop a scheme that would let people get visas intended for those with specialized knowledge or skills by making a “gift” of $1,000,000 to the Trump regime.
BACKGROUND: In 1990, Congress passed a law that sets aside a limited number of visas (official permission to live and work here) for people with “extraordinary” or “exceptional” abilities in areas like science, arts, business, and sports. These are sometimes called “Einstein visas” — in reference to the renowned physicist Albert Einstein — to highlight the type of person who is eligible. But the Trump administration, in flagrant violation of that law, has launched a program that lets people buy these visas with a “gift” of $1,000,000 to the U.S. government. The administration is calling it the “Trump Gold Card.” To recap, the Trump regime is waging a campaign of terror against people in America who are from — or who look or sound like they could be from — another country. But if you can give Trump’s government a million dollars, the regime will welcome you with open arms (or at least open pockets). Our lawsuit calls out this perversion of immigration law and asks a federal court to declare it illegal.
WHERE THINGS STAND: We are waiting for the administration’s response to our lawsuit.

LAWSUIT #31 — REGIME’S SECRET DEALS WITH BIG PHARMA
DATE FILED: January 27, 2026
WHY WE SUED: To force the administration to reveal details of its agreements with pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and Eli Lilly.
BACKGROUND: In the fall of 2025, Trump announced that his administration had negotiated “most favored nation” pricing with pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and Eli Lilly. But the regime and the companies are keeping the agreements secret. Maybe the deals will actually help everyday Americans afford essential medicines. Or maybe the deals just benefit corporate executives and assorted Trump officials. Public Citizen — under the Freedom of Information Act — called for the administration to release the agreements. It did not, so we sued.
WHERE THINGS STAND: After we sued, the administration located the documents and indicated that it will start releasing them to us in the coming weeks.***

LAWSUIT #30 — HIDING WHO GETS TO MEET WITH KEY TRUMP OFFICIALS
DATE FILED: January 5, 2026
WHY WE SUED: To make the administration disclose the names of wealthy individuals and corporate executives who are getting meetings with Trump’s Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick.
BACKGROUND: We represent a client who filed a Freedom of Information Act request in September of 2025 for Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s calendar. The administration estimated that it would not respond until June of 2028 — almost three years later. We sued to force the regime to provide the information more promptly.
WHERE THINGS STAND: The judge issued a schedule for the administration to start processing the requested information.***

LAWSUIT #29 — TRUMP’S GILDED BALLROOM
DATE FILED: December 22, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To force the administration to release records related to the construction of a gilded ballroom where the East Wing of the White House stood until Trump had it demolished.
BACKGROUND: In October of 2025, Trump had the entire East Wing of the White House demolished. In its place, he intends to erect a humongous gilded ballroom — the estimated cost of which was initially $200 million, then $300 million, and now $400 million. All so Trump can curry favor with billionaire CEOs and try to impress the authoritarian foreign leaders he longs to emulate. Two days after demolition of the East Wing began, Public Citizen — under the Freedom of Information Act — called for the administration to release the contract for the construction of the ballroom. In defiance of the law, Trump officials have refused to do so. So we took them to court.
WHERE THINGS STAND: In response to our lawsuit, the administration released the contract.***

LAWSUIT #28 — MAGA’S WAR ON DIVERSITY
DATE FILED: December 22, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To make the regime reveal what it said when it tried to bully large law firms into abandoning efforts at making their workplaces more diverse, equitable, and inclusive.
BACKGROUND: Early in Trump’s second term, his administration sent letters to 20 major law firms about their diversity, equity, and inclusion policies. (Attacking “DEI” is of course a pillar of the grievance politics that animate Trump and his base.) Four of the firms subsequently signed settlement agreements with the regime. After the deadline for the administration’s response to our Freedom of Information Act request passed, we sued.
WHERE THINGS STAND: The administration responded to our lawsuit in early February and produced some documents, with more expected soon.***

LAWSUIT #27 — CLEAN, AFFORDABLE ENERGY
DATE FILED: December 18, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To block a new rule the regime is trying to impose that would illegally and unfairly disadvantage wind and solar projects that should qualify for federal tax credits.
BACKGROUND: Congress wanted to encourage investment in new, cleaner power generation without favoring any one technology. By weaponizing the tax code to wage war on wind and solar energy projects, the Trump regime will cause electric bills to rise, workers to lose their jobs, and older, dirtier power plants to spew more pollution into our air.
WHERE THINGS STAND: We filed a motion for summary judgment (meaning we asked the court to issue a final ruling in our favor).

LAWSUIT #26 — CONSUMER PROTECTION
DATE FILED: December 5, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To stop Trump from defunding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
BACKGROUND: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was established after the 2008 financial crisis to keep everyday Americans from getting ripped off by Big Banks. (Public Citizen played a major role in creating the CFPB.) Trump put one of his top lieutenants, Russell Vought — a primary architect of the infamous Project 2025 manifesto — in charge of the Bureau. In November of 2025, Vought announced that he would not request funding for the CFPB from the Federal Reserve, despite a legal requirement to do so.
WHERE THINGS STAND: On March 13, 2026, the judge granted our motion for summary judgment — meaning he ruled in our favor and ordered that funding be requested as required by law. Vought subsequently requested the funding needed to operate the CFPB for the next quarter.***

LAWSUIT #25 — STUDENT LOANS
DATE FILED: November 4, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To prevent the administration from denying student loan forgiveness to borrowers just because the regime doesn’t like the kind of work they do.
BACKGROUND: In 2007, Congress created the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program to help people who go into public service work, including: public school teachers, first responders, social workers, military personnel, librarians, government workers, people who work at homeless shelters and food banks, nurses and other employees at nonprofit hospitals, people who provide services to survivors of domestic violence, and many other kinds of workers. Under Trump’s Education Secretary — the billionaire former professional wrestling magnate Linda McMahon — the administration has decided to deny public service loan forgiveness to borrowers whose work it just doesn’t like.
WHERE THINGS STAND: We are waiting for the court to rule on our motion for summary judgment (a request for the court to issue a final ruling in our favor).

LAWSUIT #24 — EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION
DATE FILED: October 20, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To block a directive telling staff at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to ignore an entire category of civil rights violations.
BACKGROUND: An employment practice that negatively affects some people more than others because of traits like race, sex, age, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, or disability is a form of discrimination known as “disparate impact.” Under Trump, staff at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission have been ordered to stop investigating disparate impact claims.
WHERE THINGS STAND: The judge dismissed the case, ruling that our client was not qualified to sue, but not addressing whether the administration is acting lawfully.

LAWSUIT #23 — DEFENDING IMMIGRANT WORKERS
DATE FILED: October 20, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To challenge an “interim” rule from Trump’s Department of Transportation that prohibits asylum seekers, refugees, and DACA recipients — individuals who are legally authorized to work in the United States — from getting or renewing commercial driver’s licenses.
BACKGROUND: The interim rule was based solely on the immigration status of the workers. The agency offered no evidence of a safety issue or any other rational basis for barring people who have passed the written and road tests, and who have legal work authorization, from working as drivers. The administration put the rule into effect immediately, with no advance notice, directly threatening the livelihoods of 200,000 truck drivers, bus drivers, and delivery drivers. The rule will also hurt countless businesses, both large and small — as well as schools and potentially millions of American consumers — that depend on these drivers.
WHERE THINGS STAND: The court granted our motion asking it to put the rule on hold while the agency worked on a final rule and, after the administration issued the final rule, to pause this case while the court considers our challenge to the final rule.***

LAWSUIT #22 — FREE SPEECH FOR FEDERAL WORKERS
DATE FILED: October 3, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To stop the administration from violating the First Amendment rights of federal workers.
BACKGROUND: With the recent government shutdown, hundreds of thousands of government employees set up “out-of-office” emails before being furloughed. But at Trump’s Department of Education — run by the billionaire former professional wrestling magnate Linda McMahon — these emails were replaced with a partisan message blaming “Democrat Senators” for the shutdown. That change was made without the employees’ consent and without notice that partisan messages were being sent in their names. In essence, they were being forced to make a political statement, whether they agreed with it or not.
WHERE THINGS STAND: We won. The court granted our motion and ordered the Department of Education to remove the partisan messages from the employees’ emails.***

LAWSUIT #21 — HEALTH RESEARCH
DATE FILED: August 21, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To restore health research grants from a critical agency within the Department of Health and Human Services.
BACKGROUND: In 1999, Congress established the Agency for Health Research and Quality (AHRQ) within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to support research into how America’s health system works, how to support patients and clinicians in choosing the best care, how to improve health by improving healthcare delivery, and more. Under the “leadership” of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., HHS has destroyed AHRQ’s capacity to process grant applications, withheld decisions on pending grant applications, and refused to spend appropriated funds.
WHERE THINGS STAND: The court ordered HHS to hold onto the funds it refused to spend — rather than return those funds to the Treasury Department — so that the funding will remain available to be spent if we win the case. We are waiting for the court to rule on HHS’s motion to dismiss the case.

LAWSUIT #20 — JOB CORPS PROGRAM
DATE FILED: June 18, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To prevent the administration from closing Job Corps centers all across the country and shutting down the Job Corps program.
BACKGROUND: Congress created the Job Corps program in 1964 to provide vocational and academic training to low-income young people. The program has continued with ongoing bipartisan support in Congress — even when Richard Nixon wanted to shrink it and Ronald Reagan wanted to eliminate it altogether. But the Trump regime, in flagrant defiance of the law, wants to suspend the program and close all 99 Job Corps centers nationwide. Public Citizen, with Southern Poverty Law Center as co-counsel, filed a lawsuit challenging the administration’s unlawful attempt to close the Job Corps centers.
WHERE THINGS STAND: The court granted our motion for a preliminary injunction — blocking the regime from halting the Job Corps program while the case proceeds — with the judge writing that the administration’s actions were “unprecedented” and that it “unequivocally” acted illegally in its scheme to kill the program. We are now asking the court to issue a final ruling in our favor.***

LAWSUIT #19 — HUNGER IN AMERICA
DATE FILED: June 10, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To stop the regime from shutting down the National Hunger Clearinghouse and hotline.
BACKGROUND: For more than 30 years, Congress has required the U.S. Department of Agriculture to contract with a nonprofit organization to serve as an information clearinghouse for food assistance resources. Hunger Free America has held that contract since 2014, helping tens of thousands of individuals and families access food banks, soup kitchens, and government programs. But in May — with no explanation or warning — the Trump administration terminated the current contract and took no action to find another nonprofit to maintain the clearinghouse.
WHERE THINGS STAND: In response to our lawsuit, the administration complied with the law and awarded the contract to our client.***

LAWSUIT #18 — CONSUMER PROTECTION
DATE FILED: May 21, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To block Trump’s unlawful firing of members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
BACKGROUND: The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) conducts product-safety research, sets standards, and issues recalls. Under federal law, the agency has five commissioners who serve staggered seven-year terms. To ensure the CPSC’s independence, Congress stipulated that commissioners can be removed by the president prior to the end of their terms only “for neglect of duty or malfeasance in office but for no other cause.” However — with no explanation and no suggestion of neglect of duty or malfeasance — Trump illegally attempted to terminate three CPSC commissioners whose terms are not complete.
WHERE THINGS STAND: The District Court ruled in our favor, but the Supreme Court put that ruling on hold while the administration appeals.

LAWSUIT #17 — WORKER HEALTH AND SAFETY
DATE FILED: May 14, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To preserve the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
BACKGROUND: The Trump regime has been quietly dismantling the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), which protects workers in high-risk industries like mining, firefighting, construction, and healthcare. Under Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “leadership” at the Department of Health and Human Services, where NIOSH is housed, the majority of its staff have been fired, slated for termination, or otherwise forced out. As a result, workers throughout the country who otherwise would have been safe will get sick, hurt, and killed on the job.
WHERE THINGS STAND: After we sued, NIOSH rehired its staff. We then dismissed our case.***

LAWSUIT #16 — HUMAN RIGHTS
DATE FILED: April 24, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To prevent the administration from shutting down offices within the Department of Homeland Security that safeguard civil rights.
BACKGROUND: Congress has created three offices within the Department of Homeland Security to make sure DHS respects civil rights and civil liberties, to help immigrants who experience problems dealing with department bureaucracy, and to monitor conditions in detention facilities. In March, DHS — under the “leadership” of Trump’s Homeland Security Secretary and self-professed dog killer Kristi Noem — announced its intention to close all three of these oversight offices and fire nearly all of their employees.
WHERE THINGS STAND: We are waiting for the court to rule on our motion for summary judgment (a request for the court to issue a final ruling in our favor).

LAWSUIT #15 — TRANSPARENCY ABOUT DISMANTLING OF USAID
DATE FILED: April 22, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To make the administration disclose records related to its purge of programs and employees at USAID.
BACKGROUND: The Trump regime has essentially dissolved the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in clear disregard for the law and the Constitution. We are suing the administration over its refusal to respond to our Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for records related to its dismantling of USAID.
WHERE THINGS STAND: The administration is now producing records in response to our FOIA request.***

LAWSUIT #14 — DOING FISHY THINGS WITH EMAIL
DATE FILED: April 17, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To compel disclosure of information about the administration trying to monitor emails among nonprofit groups, monitoring the speech of government personnel, and giving outside actors access to official government email accounts.
BACKGROUND: Trump’s Office of Personnel Management (OPM) was reportedly doing some unusual (to put it mildly) things with email — including signing up for listservs nonprofit organizations use to communicate with one another, monitoring the communications of untold numbers of government employees, and letting people outside of the government into official OPM email accounts. After the administration failed to respond to our Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for records related to these actions, we sued to force disclosure.
WHERE THINGS STAND: The administration is now producing records in response to our FOIA request.***

LAWSUIT #13 — OUTSOURCING GOVERNMENT COMMUNICATIONS
DATE FILED: April 17, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To force the administration to release records about using non-governmental third parties for official government communications.
BACKGROUND: We sued Trump’s Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for its refusal to respond to our Freedom of Information Act request for records related to HUD’s use of non-governmental entities to conduct official government communications.
WHERE THINGS STAND: After we sued, HUD produced the requested documents.***

LAWSUIT #12 — WORKER RIGHTS AROUND THE WORLD
DATE FILED: April 15, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To reverse the administration’s abrupt and unlawful cancellation of critical international labor rights programs.
BACKGROUND: The Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) protects workers and businesses in the United States from unfair competition by companies and governments that violate workers’ rights to free association and collective bargaining, that use forced labor or child labor, or that otherwise violate labor rights to gain an unfair advantage in the global marketplace. In March, the Trump regime terminated all of ILAB’s cooperative agreements, with the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) being run by Elon Musk insisting that the administration would not spend funds Congress specifically appropriated to combat unfair labor practices and to support workers’ rights abroad.
WHERE THINGS STAND: The case is proceeding.

LAWSUIT #11 — CLIMATE CHANGE & ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
DATE FILED: April 14, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To restore key environmental data the regime scrubbed from various government websites.
BACKGROUND: Shortly after the Trump regime took over in January, it started removing interactive pages related to climate change and environmental justice from the taxpayer-funded websites of various agencies — including the Department of Energy, the Department of Transportation, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. We filed suit on behalf of the Sierra Club, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and others.
WHERE THINGS STAND: The court dismissed the case, ruling that our clients lacked standing.

LAWSUIT #10 — GOVERNMENT TRANSPARENCY
DATE FILED: April 8, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To stop the administration from keeping its decisions about how to spend taxpayer dollars secret.
BACKGROUND: Trump put a man named Russell Vought — a primary architect of the infamous Project 2025 manifesto — in charge of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). By law, OMB is required to publicly post information, on something called the Public Apportionments Database, about the funds allocated to each federal agency. But under Vought’s leadership and in clear violation of the law, OMB took that database offline and told Congress it would stop maintaining the database altogether. The Public Apportionments Database is an invaluable resource for monitoring how the government spends taxpayer money — including whether the administration is flouting Congress’ constitutional authority over government spending (the “power of the purse”).
WHERE THINGS STAND: In response to our lawsuit, the court ordered the administration to restore the apportionments database while the case proceeds. Although OMB has appealed, the information is currently back online.***

LAWSUIT #9 — EDUCATION IN AMERICA
DATE FILED: April 4, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To challenge the regime’s dismantling of the Institute of Education Sciences.
BACKGROUND: The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) is a semi-independent division within the Department of Education that conducts, supports, and disseminates high-quality, evidence-based research about education in America. In February, the Department of Education — run by the billionaire former professional wrestling magnate Linda McMahon — began dismantling IES by cancelling dozens of contracts for research studies and support services vital to the agency’s functioning. In March, roughly 90% of IES employees were notified that they would be terminated.
WHERE THINGS STAND: After we sued, the administration announced that it would not cancel access to a key research database as it had planned to do. The court recently denied the administration’s motion to dismiss the case, and we will be filing a motion for summary judgment (a request for the court to issue a final ruling in our favor).***

LAWSUIT #8 — TAXPAYER PRIVACY
DATE FILED: March 7, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To prevent the IRS from illegally sharing taxpayer data with DHS and ICE.
BACKGROUND: Like other workers, undocumented workers are required to pay income taxes. The Internal Revenue Service is legally required to treat their tax records, like those of every other taxpayer, as private and confidential unless disclosure is specifically allowed by law. No law permits the IRS to disclose tax records for immigration enforcement purposes. But the Trump regime — specifically the Department of Homeland Security along with Immigration and Customs Enforcement — wants to access tax data to support its mass deportation agenda. This is not just about the rights of undocumented workers: Congress enacted taxpayer privacy laws in response to misuse of IRS records during the presidency of Richard Nixon.
WHERE THINGS STAND: The judge agreed that sharing tax information for civil immigration enforcement is not permissible. But, accepting the administration’s claim that it would share such information only for use in criminal investigations, the judge denied our motion for a preliminary injunction. The appeals court upheld that ruling.

LAWSUIT #7 — CONSUMER PROTECTION
DATE FILED: February 13, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To stop the administration from eliminating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
BACKGROUND: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was established after the 2008 financial crisis to keep everyday Americans from getting ripped off by Big Banks. (Public Citizen played a major role in creating the CFPB.) Trump has openly declared his intent to “totally eliminate” the CFPB, and he put one of his top lieutenants — Russell Vought, a primary architect of the infamous Project 2025 manifesto — in charge of the Bureau. But the administration cannot lawfully dismantle a federal agency created by statute. Any attempt to do so is in defiance of the Constitution’s separation of powers. That hasn’t stopped Vought from trying to fire the vast majority of CFPB employees, among other schemes to shut the Bureau down.
WHERE THINGS STAND: The judge granted our motion for a preliminary injunction blocking Vought from summarily firing CFPB staff and cancelling CFPB contracts while the case proceeds. The administration’s appeal of that preliminary injunction is still pending. We recently withdrew as co-counsel in this case to focus on Lawsuit #26 (above).***

LAWSUIT #6 — FOREIGN AID
DATE FILED: February 10, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To block Trump’s illegal and inhumane foreign aid freeze.
BACKGROUND: On his very first day back in office, Trump issued an executive order directing agencies to freeze foreign assistance that supports humanitarian efforts worldwide, including $4 billion that was supposed to be spent by the end of September, 2025. The administration then froze, and later terminated, a large swath of grants for foreign assistance work. Only about 1% of the federal budget — just one penny out of every dollar — goes to foreign aid. With that relatively modest expenditure, American aid helps millions and millions of people all across the world who are facing disease, famine, illness, malnutrition, and oppression.
WHERE THINGS STAND: In February of 2025, the court ordered the government to pay all the grantees’ invoices for work they had already done. In early September of 2025, we won a preliminary injunction in the lower court requiring the administration to spend appropriated funds before the end of that month. The Supreme Court stepped in and allowed the administration to impound (meaning not spend) about $4 billion. The case is proceeding.***

LAWSUIT #5 — GOVERNMENT TRANSPARENCY
DATE FILED: February 7, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To keep “DOGE” out of the Department of Education
BACKGROUND: Operatives from the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) being run by Elon Musk infiltrated Department of Education databases that include financial information of thousands of student-loan applicants and their families.
WHERE THINGS STAND: After the court indicated in a preliminary ruling that our clients could not show harm needed to pursue the case, we closed the case voluntarily.

LAWSUIT #4 — GLOBAL HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
DATE FILED: February 6, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To preserve the U.S. Agency for International Development.
BACKGROUND: Shortly after returning to power, Trump tried to dissolve the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in clear disregard for the law and the Constitution. Elon Musk later bragged that he had spent a weekend “feeding USAID into the wood chipper.” Established by Congress in 1961 — when John F. Kennedy was president — USAID provides life-saving food, medicine, and support to much of the rest of the world. In January, though, Trump’s Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, illegally ordered USAID workers to stop doing their jobs, froze the agency’s funding, and prepared to lay off or fire nearly all employees. With USAID in disarray, medical clinics, soup kitchens, refugee assistance programs, and countless other critical projects across the globe could not operate.
WHERE THINGS STAND: We initially won a temporary restraining order to stop Trump from carrying out this global humanitarian nightmare. But the judge later lifted it, allowing the regime to terminate the majority of USAID’s employees, and granted the administration’s motion to dismiss the case. We have appealed that ruling.

LAWSUIT #3 — PUBLIC HEALTH
DATE FILED: February 4, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To restore critical health information the regime deleted from government websites.
BACKGROUND: Based on a directive from the administration to scrub information related to gender or “DEI” from government websites, essential public health agencies — like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) — removed vital information that doctors and researchers all across the country were using to treat patients, monitor diseases, advance medical discoveries, and save lives. In some instances, information that had been publicly available going back to the 1990s had vanished.
WHERE THINGS STAND: We won. The court issued a final ruling in our favor, requiring the agencies to restore the deleted information, which they have done.***

LAWSUIT #2 — FINANCIAL PRIVACY
DATE FILED: February 3, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To limit “DOGE” infiltration of the Treasury Department.
BACKGROUND: The U.S. Treasury Department possesses sensitive personal and financial information for millions and millions of Americans who send money to or receive money from the federal government. Federal laws protect such information from improper disclosure and misuse — including by barring disclosure to individuals who lack a lawful and legitimate need for it. But instead of protecting Americans’ private information as required by law, Scott Bessent, Trump’s jillionaire Treasury Secretary, allowed operatives from the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) being run by Elon Musk access to the data.
WHERE THINGS STAND: The court granted the administration’s motion to dismiss the case.

LAWSUIT #1 — “DOGE” WAS ILLEGALLY STRUCTURED
DATE FILED: January 20, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To prevent “DOGE” from operating in violation of the Federal Advisory Committee Act.
BACKGROUND: Within literally one minute of Trump taking office on January 20, Public Citizen filed suit in federal court alleging that the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) being run by Elon Musk was not in compliance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act, a law that requires federal advisory committees to consist of members with a fair balance of viewpoints, to make meetings open to the public, and to make records and work product available to the public.
WHERE THINGS STAND: With DOGE mutating into something other than an advisory committee, we voluntarily closed this case.

We know that was a lot. So here’s a recap of the recap:

In 19 of these 37 cases so far — those marked with three asterisks (***) at the end of the entry — we have either won the case outright, gotten a preliminary ruling that limits or delays whatever bad thing the regime is trying to do, or forced the administration to reveal information. And — in terms of what we noted above about the pace at which these kinds of cases tend to make their way through the courts — it’s still early.

We fully expect even more progress in these suits. Given the powerful forces and legal realities we’re up against, this is something that everyone who supports Public Citizen can and should take pride in.

Are these lawsuits alone enough to fully defeat Trump and MAGA? Of course not. But are they a meaningful part of the pushback that is the only chance we have to collectively save our country? No doubt about it.

What you and Public Citizen are doing together matters. What hundreds of other organizations, big and small, are doing matters. What millions upon millions of our fellow Americans are doing matters. We believe that to our core. We take solace in that. And we draw inspiration from that. We hope you do, too.

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If you’ve donated to Public Citizen before, thank you. If a donation is not right, we understand. Either way, thank you for being part of Public Citizen.

For progress,

- Lisa Gilbert & Robert Weissman, Co-Presidents of Public Citizen

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