Donald Trump administration hit with slew of legal challenges
Since President Donald Trump assumed office on January 20, a slew of lawsuits have been filed challenging his executive actions.
Newsweek sought email comment from the office of the acting attorney general on Tuesday.
Why It Matters
The lawsuits could delay or frustrate Trump’s policies for years. They involve everything from birthright citizenship to federal diversity programs.
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What To Know
The Trump administration is facing over a dozen major lawsuits. The lawsuits include:
Diversity Programs
Executive Order
Trump signed two executive orders outlawing all federal programs promoting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion [DEI].
Legal Challenges
The city of Maryland and three other groups sued the Trump administration on February 3, asking a federal court to declare the executive orders unconstitutional.
The lawsuit, filed in Maryland federal court, seeks a permanent injunction against the orders.
“In the United States, there is no king,” reads the lawsuit from the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, the American Association of University Professors, the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United and Baltimore city.
Asylum Crackdown
Executive Order
Trump signed an executive order allowing border immigration officials to turn away asylum seekers. Until then, all people claiming asylum were entitled to a hearing on their claim.
Legal Challenges
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit in a Washington, D.C. federal court on February 4. The lawsuit claims that Trump’s order is “unlawful as it is unprecedented.”
The ACLU is joined in the lawsuit by three immigrant support groups: Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES), Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, and the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project in Florida.
Sanctuary Cities
Presidential Order
Not strictly an executive order but, at Trump’s request, Acting Secretary of the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security Benjamine Huffman issued a policy guidance that instructs the Department of Justice to take action against so called “sanctuary cities” that prevent the arrest of illegal immigrants.
The guidance tells the Justice Department “to identify state and local laws, policies, and activities that are inconsistent with Executive Branch immigration initiatives and, where appropriate, to take legal action to challenge such laws.”
Legal Challenges
A group of Chicago-based immigrant groups filed a lawsuit in late January, stating that the attorney general’s guidance violates the Administrative Procedure Act and the First Amendment. It seeks an injunction against the attorney general.
Termination of Birthright Citizenship
Executive Order:
Trump signed an executive order aiming to end birthright citizenship for children born in the U.S. to non-citizen parents.
Legal Challenges:
Attorneys general from 22 states filed lawsuits in Massachusetts arguing that the order violates the 14th Amendment.
A second lawsuit was filed in Boston on Tuesday by anonymous plaintiff O. Doe, who is pregnant, and the Brazilian Worker Center and the advocacy group La Colaborativa.
The lawsuit says that Doe’s child “will be one of the targeted citizens.”
“By purporting to unilaterally strip the targeted citizens of their right to citizenship, the EO violates the Fourteenth Amendment and corresponding statutory protections,” it says. “And because the EO treats the targeted citizens as a subordinate caste of native-born Americans, entitled to fewer rights, benefits, and entitlements than other Americans due to their parents’ alienage, it also violates their right to equal protection under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment.”
Additional lawsuits were filed in federal courts in Boston and New Hampshire by various civil rights groups.
Removing Employment Rights From Federal Workers
Executive Order:
Trump’s executive order, signed within hours of his inauguration, is designed to strip policymaking federal employees of the legal guarantees that protect them from political purges. Trump’s executive order states that any power that federal employees have “is delegated by the President, and they must be accountable to the President.”
Federal employee trade union, The National Treasury Employee Union, launched a lawsuit against the order in a federal court in Washington, D.C. in late January, aiming to save federal jobs from political purges.
Legal Challenge:
The National Treasury Employee Union launched a lawsuit in Washington, D.C. in late January.
The lawsuit states that the Trump order is a violation of laws designed to protect employees from political firing.
What People Are Saying
The American Postal Workers Union said in a statement that Trump’s executive order on federal worker rights “would allow the ruling administration to reclassify many civil servants as policymaking or policy-evaluating workers, thereby removing their civil service protections and making them at-will employees. President Trump could then install whomever he pleases based on favoritism and loyalty to his administration.”
What Happens Next
The federal courts will give the Trump administration time to reply to all the lawsuits.
Given the large number of states involved in the Massachusetts birthright lawsuit and the seriousness of the constitutional issues involved, it is likely to be considered by the U.S Supreme Court.
