Napoleon
Week of February 14-20, 2025
Welcome to TRACKING THE CRISIS, a new weekly round-up from The Democracy Collaborative tracking the administrative, legislative, and other actions of the new Trump Administration as well as the many forms of legal and movement response from across a broad range of social, political and economic actors. TDC is providing this service for collective informational purposes, as a tool for understanding the times during a period of disorientingly rapid flux and change in the U.S. political economy. TDC should not be understood as endorsing or otherwise any of the specific content of the information round-up.
TRUMP TRACKER: Administration actions
Trump echoes Napoleon as outrage grows over dictatorial statements.
On Saturday, Trump shocked the Internet by posting “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law” on the official White House X account, a quote referencing Napoleon Bonaparte. The quote, taken in the context of Trump’s defiance of judicial orders and increasing expansion of executive power, drew consternation from commentators across the political spectrum, from liberal columnists to centrist Democrats, to traditional neoconservatives and even those who served in the first Trump administration, such as former White House press secretary Anthony Scaramucci and former Vice President Mike Pence. On Wednesday, Trump seemed to double down on this autocratic self-image in another official White House post on X celebrating the Administration’s move to terminate federal approval of congestion pricing in New York City, declaring “LONG LIVE THE KING!” with an AI-generated parody TIME magazine cover depicting himself wearing a king’s crown against the New York City skyline. Trump’s overtly monarchial tone, on top of his Napoleon tweet essentially declaring himself above the law, was described as ‘revoltingly un-American’, especially as Trump continues to stretch the constitutional limits of Presidential power through executive orders and taking over Congressionally-authorized independent federal agencies. Huffpost has published a long commentary outlining the relationship of Trump’s statements to Nazi rhetoric and principle, including the fact that the Napoleon quote was also used by far-right mass murderer Andrej Breivik. Elon Musk reposted Trump’s quote on Saturday appending the remark with 14 US flags, which many on social media have interpreted as a dog-whistle to white supremacists reflecting the infamous neo-Nazi “14 words” slogan.
JD Vance alarms Europe at Munich Security Conference.
Last Friday, February 14th, JD Vance’s ‘blistering’ speech at the Munich Security Conference (full text here) marked a significant turning point in the transatlantic military alliance between the United States and Western Europe that has characterized the postwar period. Declaring that Europe’s greatest threat was not from Russia or China, but ‘from within,’ Vance blasted European leaders over issues mainly relating to migration and ‘free speech,’ the latter mainly referring to Germany’s shunning of Nazi-related parties like the AfD and ‘safe zone’ laws protecting healthcare clinics from anti-abortion prayer protests in Scotland. The speech was met with stunned silence in the assembly, with European leaders decrying Vance’s rhetoric as ‘not acceptable’ and ‘untrue,’ while other media commentators pointed out what they portrayed as Vance’s hypocrisy in his evocation of ‘democracy’ in defense of far-right authoritarian parties in Romania and Germany, as well as his full-throated embrace of Trump’s administrative coup in the United States. Deutsche Welle has listed fact-checking items debunking many of Vance’s claims in his speech. After the speech, Vance raised further alarm by privately meeting with AfD leader Alice Weidel while shunning other German officials, signaling an implied endorsement of extreme right-wing movements in Europe. As the heightened confrontational atmosphere between the United States and Europe marks a major shift in transatlantic relations, French President Emmanuel Macron called an emergency conference of a subset of European leaders on Monday to discuss the potential security implications of a withdrawal of American support in the shadow of the Russia-Ukraine war as Trump shut European countries out of peace talks. At home, Vance was heavily criticized by Democratic lawmakers for echoing Nazi rhetoric while receiving a standing ovation at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Thursday.
Mass layoffs and firings of federal employees impact government services and local communities around the country.
Termination orders were implemented against thousands of probationary federal employees in the last week, wreaking havoc on government systems across the country with reported consequences for the public ranging from community services and local economies to national security arrangements. CNN reports that ‘probationary employees’ refer not only to new workers, but also long-standing civil servants who had recently been promoted to leadership positions at their agencies. Fired employees were notified that their termination was due to ‘performance’ reasons (regardless of their actual review status), which may affect eligibility for unemployment in some states, and AFGE is fighting these false ‘performance’ claims. Cuts across many federal agencies include:
US Department of Agriculture - Cuts were made across the USDA’s many programs, which not only affect farm subsidies and services, but also impact top research labs.
US Forest Service - Experts warn that ‘potentially deadly’ cuts and hiring freezes at the imperil the agency’s ability to fight wildfires, putting communities and firefighters in jeopardy; and have already hampered Hurricane Helene recovery efforts.
National Science Foundation - On Tuesday, 168 program officers were fired with just 3 hours’ notice, potentially affecting the direction of important research agendas.
Federal Aviation Administration - At the Federal Aviation Administration, hundreds of workers were laid off, which FAA officials characterized as “a threat to our safety” after several high-profile plane crashes claimed dozens of lives.
National Nuclear Security Administration - Last Friday, hundreds of safety workers at the NNSA were fired, including those overseeing the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile; employees were hastily recalled after the mass firings posed a national security threat, but the agency struggled to re-hire them for lack of contact information.
National Institutes for Health - Sweeping layoffs at the NIH threaten to undermine decades of research into medical breakthroughs.
NASA - Over 1,000 workers at NASA were set to be fired until the agency reached a last-minute deal to retain key personnel.
Office of Personnel Management FOIA staff - CNN reporters filing Freedom of Information Act requests regarding DOGE at the Office of Personnel Management were informed that OPM’s entire privacy team, which handles FOIA requests, had been terminated.
FEMA - Hundreds of layoffs at FEMA and HUD’s disaster program, as well as the elimination of all climate-related work at the Department of Homeland Security, threaten disaster response and rebuilding efforts at a time when billion-dollar natural disasters striking the United States are at an all-time high.
Housing and Urban Development - HUD’s union president reports that the authority has plans to shed fully 50% of its workforce in the near future, threatening programs for affordable housing, mortgage assistance, first-time homebuyers, and more.
Commerce Department - 500 employees at the National Institute of Standards and Technology received verbal notices of termination on Wednesday, including workers responsible for setting standards for AI use and development.
Bank Regulators - Along with the dismantling of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, around 170 employees have been terminated at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), part of the Trump Administration’s broader reshuffling of bank regulatory agencies.
National Park Service - About 1,000 employees were laid off from the NPS, leaving many sites critically understaffed and raising concerns about public safety, resource protection and park maintenance across the country’s 428 national parks.
Department of Interior / BIA - Another 2,300 additional workers were laid off from the Department of Interior, including Bureau of Land Management employees responsible for maintaining millions of acres of public land, as well as Bureau of Indian Affairs and Tribal staff. Cuts are already impacting Indian Country as layoffs at Haskell University, one of the nation’s top Tribal colleges, left students without teachers at the beginning of the semester.
Internal Revenue Service - At the height of tax season, nearly 7,000 IRS employees were set to be laid off beginning on Thursday, 5,000 of which are being cut from the enforcement and collections department.
Department of Veterans Affairs - Approximately 1,000 employees were cut from the VA, including disabled veteran workers and staffers who operate the Veterans Crisis Line, one of the most successful tools used to deter veteran suicides, sparking concerns from lawmakers over impacts to military services.
US Digital Service (now DOGE) - Hundreds of legacy workers at the US Digital Service were terminated as its functions have been taken over by DOGE, which is now setting its sights on future federal staffing cuts to programs serving DEI and agencies overseeing equal rights protections.
All of these layoffs come as communities, organizations and small businesses around the country are still facing uncertainties around the federal funding freeze, including red states dependent on billions of dollars in clean energy funding targeted by Trump’s promised ‘roll-back’ of sustainable development initiatives. According to Politico, approximately 14% of federally funded programs are thought to be in the Trump Administration’s crosshairs, including the National School Lunch Program, disaster assistance, and more.
Anti-immigration actions and rhetoric heat up as deportees, migrants suffer.
This week, the Department of Homeland Security has begun to run online ads featuring DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, telling immigrants to ‘self-deport’ or else be “hunted down and deported.” Despite the Trump Administration’s rhetoric claiming to prioritize deporting ‘dangerous criminals,’ new data from ICE shows that nearly 41% of detainees in February have no criminal record or warrant, a sharp increase from the 28% of migrants detained in the last month of the Biden administration. Deportees are also increasingly being ‘exported’ to third-party countries such as Costa Rica, where over half of a flight of mostly Asian deportees were reportedly minors, and Panama, where out of hundreds of non-Panamanian migrants being held in a hotel in Panama City, about 100 were reportedly transferred to Panama’s dangerous Darien jungle region on Wednesday. AP reports how the Trump Administration is involving multiple government departments to enact promised actions regarding immigration enforcement. In the coming days, the Trump Administration is expected to issue orders defining immigration at the US-Mexico border as a ‘public health crisis,’ further criminalizing undocumented migrants. On Wednesday, Trump signed an executive order ending federal benefits for ‘illegal aliens’, a largely symbolic move considering that most undocumented immigrants already do not qualify for federal programs. On Wednesday, the White House X account posted what has been described as an ‘extremely psychopathic’ video showing “ASMR” of migrants in chains on a deportation flight. The Texas Observer has exposed an ICE official in Dallas as the author of a white supremacist X account. The Administration’s heightened anti-immigrant rhetoric has claimed at least one life; an 11-year-old girl in Texas committed suicide after being bullied by classmates who threatened to report her family to ICE.
Anti-immigrant policies impacting legal immigration and asylum processes.
Caught up in Trump’s deportation dragnet are immigrants in the legal process who are being arrested as they show up to mandatory check-ins and court appearances, a tactic observers report as ‘picking off the low-hanging fruit’ in response to the Administration’s reported anger that deportation numbers aren’t meeting arrest quotas. Last Friday, the Administration imposed new policies toughening security requirements for sponsors of unaccompanied migrant children, a move advocates say will make it far more difficult for children to be released from federal custody and reunited with their families in the United States; and on Tuesday, the Administration ended legal support for around 100,000 immigrant children from the Office of Refugee Resettlement. On Thursday, the Trump Administration rescinded an extension of Haiti’s Temporary Protected Status, removing legal status and protections for over 521,000 Haitian refugees seeking asylum in the United States; and enacted a freeze on immigration applications for migrants from Latin America and Ukraine allowed into the US under Biden-era policies. Amnesty International released a report on Thursday finding that the “right to seek asylum at the US-Mexico border is effectively non-existent.” About 20 immigration judges are among those terminated in the Trump Administration’s federal employee purge, exacerbating a legal immigration backlog of about 4 million cases. The Immigrant Legal Resource Center has produced a guide outlining the impact of the Trump Administration’s executive actions on legal immigration benefits and processing.
Courts rule DOGE can temporarily access data as Musk eyes Social Security, IRS.
Procedural battles continue to rage this week over Elon Musk and DOGE’s unprecedented level of access to the private data of hundreds of millions of Americans. On Tuesday, Judge Tanya Chutkan of the US Circuit Court for the District of Columbia denied a request from 14 state Attorneys General to block DOGE’s access to data at seven federal agencies, citing that the states had failed to show “imminent, irreparable harm absent a temporary restraining order.” The ruling comes despite the White House admitting on Monday that Elon Musk is technically classified as a “special government employee” serving “only” an advisory role to the Office of the President and does not have the legal authority to “make government decisions himself – including personnel decisions at individual agencies.” The American Prospect notes that the ‘special employee’ designation has a legal term limit of 100 days; it remains to be seen if Musk and Trump will honor such limits. On Sunday, Musk targeted Social Security, posting a spreadsheet excerpt on X containing data from the SSA database that supposedly “proves” his claims of widespread fraud, claiming “150-year-olds are receiving payments.” Tech experts swiftly debunked his claim, citing a mechanism in the system’s legacy COBOL code that defaults to a date of 1875 as a way of handling unknown values. Misleading interpretations notwithstanding, Musk’s access to sensitive Social Security data has sparked numerous privacy concerns and at least a dozen lawsuits seeking to hinder DOGE’s unfettered access to Americans’ private data. NBC News dives into detail on 11 of those lawsuits. On Tuesday, DOGE set its sights on the IRS and taxpayer data, prompting immediate pushback and warnings on how such access puts Americans’ most sensitive financial information at risk. Late on Thursday, the Treasury Department agreed to limit DOGE’s access to the database, showing only anonymized aggregate data and not individual returns.
Key health positions de-staffed as disease outbreaks spread across the country.
On Saturday, hundreds of workers were fired at the Centers for Disease Control, including two dozen ‘disease detectors’ at the Laboratory Leadership Service, a group “responsible for training public health laboratory staffers and supporting outbreak response efforts.” These cuts come amid a number of dangerous infectious disease epidemics emerging across the country, including measles outbreaks in Texas and New Mexico, a surge of tuberculosis cases in Kansas, and the looming threat of H5N1 avian flu in multiple states, on the heels of an especially intense flu season filling hospitals with severely ill patients. On Tuesday, the USDA announced the “accidental” firing of several employees who were involved in the government’s response to H5N1, and that the agency was scrambling to re-hire the frontline employees. Several experts have raised alarms over staffing cuts to key CDC departments and public health offices at a time when rapid government response is needed to contain emerging outbreaks, especially those with high potential to turn into the next pandemic, such as H5N1 and the still-circulating COVID-19 virus, whose spread and intensity may be potentially exacerbated by the hardline anti-vaccine stance taken by Trump and new Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Late on Tuesday, the Trump Administration reversed its plans to shut down the government program providing free COVID-19 tests to households; at-home COVID-19 tests will remain available to the public at least until the expiration date of the current stockpile.
Trump Administration and HHS push anti-trans agenda amid high-profile news of trans suicide and anti-trans violence.
On Tuesday, US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced sweeping new guidance implementing Trump’s executive order defining only two biological sexes, effectively erasing federal recognition of transgender and intersex people. By Wednesday, HHS had launched a new anti-trans website under the Office of Women’s Health, sparking outrage from trans advocates and the LGBTQ+ community. California Democratic Rep. Mark Takano, chairman of the Congressional Equality Caucus, blasted the move by HHS, telling LGBTQ+ outlet The Advocate that the Trump Administration “is taking a wrecking ball to systems designed to protect LGBTQI+ people with no regard to the damage they’re doing to public health.” Earlier in the week, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission moved to dismiss six transgender discrimination cases in compliance with Trump’s executive order, “signaling a major shift in federal civil rights enforcement” with regard to gender. Trump continued to wield federal funding as a weapon against transgender participation in sports, threatening to withhold federal funding to universities that continued to allow transgender athletes to compete. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison asserted that Trump’s order banning transgender athletes is in violation of state anti-discrimination law. Legal battles continue to rage over transgender participation in the military, as trans military members speak out against fears of an outright ban on transgender service members. Legal scholar Edwin Chemerinsky published an article on Thursday blasting Trump’s anti-trans policies as unconstitutional, illegal, and mean,” while community members wrote letters to the Washington Post speaking out on the impacts of Trump’s broad anti-trans agenda. AP has published a guide to the implications of Trump’s executive orders for the trans community. The erasure of legal protections, along with the heightened intensity of anti-trans rhetoric, is already claiming lives as LGBTQ+ and allied communities mourn the recent suicide of Elsa Rae Shupe, a military veteran who was the first person to receive a non-binary gender marker on official documents, and the horrific murder of Sam Nordquist, a transgender man who was lured to upstate New York and tortured for a month before being killed by five people earlier this month.
Tracking the money: who is benefiting from DOGE’s “war on waste”?
Elon Musk’s involvement in DOGE and the purge of “waste” and “fraud” from federal programs is prompting intense scrutiny of Musk’s many conflicts of interest, given the approximately $3.1 billion in federal contracts held by Tesla and SpaceX. According to the Independent, Musk companies have been promised or awarded nearly $21 billion in government contracts since 2008, with another $76.7 million promised in the four weeks since Trump’s inauguration. In the past week alone, Tesla secured a contract with Genera, Puerto Rico’s power company, for $767 million, while SpaceX netted a supplemental contract with NASA on Monday worth another $7.5 million. Among the many implications of DOGE’s involvement in federal systems is his potential access to Department of Defense contracting databases, which former State Department officials fear might give Musk an advantage to “corner defense markets around the world.” Private companies are closely watching Musk’s decimation of federal government services, eyeing the prospect of private contracts that would replace current government-run systems. Michael Klare reports on the venture capital pouring into defense-related startups that are competing within Trump’s inner circle for billions of dollars in Pentagon contracts. Peter Thiel-funded company Palantir is also one of the “gleeful profiteers” whose stock is soaring on prospects of surveillance and immigration enforcement contracting in Trump’s emerging police state. DOGE’s major cutbacks on regulatory agencies not only include the firing of FDA regulators involved in review of Musk’s Neuralink technology, but also benefit banks whose ability to squeeze the American public through overdraft charges and other bank fees had been previously curtailed by the CFPB. In the wake of radical cuts to the FAA, Elon Musk announced on X this week that SpaceX engineers will review and potentially take over air traffic control systems. Civil Eats reports on JD Vance’s investments in AcreTrader, an investment platform for US farmland, and how private equity funds stand to make millions as American farmers face bankruptcy in the wake of cuts to USDA programs and the loss of income from USAID contracts. Robert Reich points out that the current budget bills on the table include trillions of dollars in tax cut extensions for rich individuals, amid Trump’s proposal to cut the base corporate tax rate to just 15%. A Wall Street Journal exclusive published this week outlines the nearly $80 million in settlements, business and media deals personally benefiting the Trump family in the wake of the election.
MOVEMENT TRACKER
Over 1000 people protest removal of transgender references from Stonewall National Monument.
On Friday, February 14th, over a thousand protestors rallied at the Stonewall Inn to protest the scrubbing of transgender references from the Stonewall National Monument website. Chanting “No LGB without the T,” protestors, as well as the Stonewall Inn itself, decried the erasure of transgender references from many government resource websites as well as the Trump Administration’s broad anti-trans agenda. The rally also reaffirmed calls for protection of transgender people and solidarity from the wider LGBTQIA+ community. Veterans of the original Stonewall Uprising spoke out against transgender oppression and celebrated the legacy of transgender struggle, remembering the trans women, Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, who were at the heart of the Stonewall Uprising in 1970. Marsha P. Johnson’s family issued a statement on Wednesday against the erasure, speaking up for Johnson’s lasting legacy.
50501 Movement protests around the country on President’s Day.
Rallying around the slogans “Not My President” and “No Kings on President’s Day,” protests organized by the 50501 Movement took place in all 50 states on Monday to sound off in opposition to the Trump Administration and DOGE’s anti-democratic and oppressive agenda. The protest call drew huge crowds in NYC’s Union Square as well as thousands at Washington DC, Colorado’s state Capitol, the Bay Area and Olympia, Washington, with others joining rallies in red states such as South Carolina, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Alaska. Local organizers include Indivisible chapters as well as first-time organizers. 50501 has called for another nationwide protest on March 4th, as Trump addresses Congress.
Immigration rights protests continue across the country.
Local communities continue to organize and protest across the country against the Trump Administration’s anti-immigrant agenda, drawing big rallies in New York this past week and a third straight week of protests at LA City Hall as well as high school student walkouts in Bakersfield, CA, Oakland, CA, Santa Maria, CA, Rockford, IL, Rochester, MN, and Tulsa, OK. Students also rallied on college campuses at the University of Oregon, University of North Texas and University of Missouri this week. In Tucson, Arizona, hundreds of protesters gathered Monday to oppose a state bill requiring state and local law enforcement to cooperate with ICE.
In the Bay Area, protestors marched more than 20 miles this week to highlight solidarity with immigrant communities. On Wednesday, Japanese Americans commemorating the anniversary of Order 9066, which instigated the removal and internment of Japanese Americans during WWII, rallied in Seattle to align the history of their struggle with that of immigrants today. Religious leaders also continue to voice opposition to Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda, as dozens of rabbis, Jewish community leaders and activists gathered on the steps of NYC’s City Hall to present an open letter to Mayor Eric Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul to protect immigrant communities, and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops took the Trump Administration to court for freezing funds dedicated to refugee resettlement.
Federal employees mobilize to #SaveOurServices.
Amidst the mass layoffs and firings of over 200,000 federal government employees, federal workers are mobilizing across the country and uniting nationally to protest their terminations and raise awareness of the potentially catastrophic consequences of DOGE and the Trump Administration’s cuts to federal services. The protests began on Tuesday in Chicago, where fired federal workers rallied to protest cuts to the EPA and speak out against the ‘billionaire takeover’ of government. On Wednesday, federal employee rallies against the purges were staged nationwide under the banner of “Save Our Services,” including demonstrations at the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington DC and in lower Manhattan, as well as at federal offices and Tesla dealerships in Montpelier, VT, Atlanta, GA, Milwaukee, WI, Knoxville, TN, Ogden, UT, Baltimore County, MD, North Las Vegas, NV, Philadelphia, PA, Yosemite National Park, and more. In New York City, Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez delivered a speech blasting DOGE for ‘looting our federal programs… for his own private profit’ and expressing solidarity with federal workers. Federal employees and activists also took to social media to tell their stories and speak to the implications of the mass firings under the hashtag #SaveOurServices on Facebook, X, and Bluesky.
The American Federation of Government Workers, the largest union for federal employees, has issued a statement stating it will fight for terminated workers, refuting the false premise of ‘performance’ claims as justification for the mass firings. In California, workers across the University of California system have voted by 98% to strike at the end of February in protest of cuts to federal programs affecting research and hospitals system wide.
Resignations of top officials in protest of Trump, Musk actions.
Several top officials have resigned in protest this week over funding freezes, layoffs, and other spending cuts implemented by DOGE and the Trump Administration. Among them are Jim Jones, top official at the FDA in charge of food safety; Denise Cheung, veteran federal prosecutor at the Justice Department who resigned after refusing to carry out ‘orders from Trump-appointed officials to take actions unsupported by evidence’; DOJ senior ethics official Bradley Weinsheimer, who resigned after being reassigned to a new ‘sanctuary city task force’; USDS director of data science and engineering Anne Marshall, who resigned in protest of DOGE’s takeover and subsequent layoff of its legacy workforce; General Services Administration’s Technology Transformation Services head Thomas Shedd, who resigned after refusing to allow Musk appointees access to the GSA’s notification database, which includes personal contact information for millions of Americans; and acting Social Security Administration commissioner Michelle King, who stepped down after refusing requests from DOGE to access sensitive Social Security information.
High-profile individuals push back against Trump agenda.
In his State of the State address, Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker, a descendant of survivors of Jewish progroms in Ukraine who helped build the Illinois Holocaust museum, gave a speech on Wednesday warning of the dangers of Trump’s authoritarianism, pointing out that “It took the Nazis one month, three weeks, two days, eight hours and 40 minutes to dismantle a constitutional republic.” He also declared that “my oath is to the Constitution of our state and of our country. We don’t have kings in America – and I don’t intend to bend the knee to one.” In Huntington Beach, CA, former NFL player Chris Kluwe was arrested at a city council meeting while protesting the city’s proposal to install a MAGA plaque, calling for Americans to engage in “civil disobedience” against MAGA and the Trump Administration.
Bernie Sanders announces ‘tour’ of red districts in hopes of overturning Republican House votes.
In a Guardian op-ed published on Wednesday, Bernie Sanders announced an upcoming tour of townhall meetings in red districts around the country, beginning in Omaha and Iowa City this weekend. His goal is to rally constituents in the hope of turning Republican votes against the slim three-vote party line majority in the House to push back against the Trump Administration’s agenda.
Momentum builds for economic blackout on February 28.
Mainstream media is picking up on calls for a one-day economic blackout called for February 28. Americans are encouraged to drop any spending at major corporate retailers, gas stations, and fast food restaurants for 24 hours, targeting companies who have dropped DEI policies. Consumer boycotts seem to be working; Target’s stock has dropped by 6.71% over the past month as the company faces backlash over their elimination of DEI policies, and a new poll this week found that 25% of American shoppers have recently stopped shopping at their favorite stores over recent weeks due to political stances, and 4 out of 10 Americans have shifted their spending habits to align with their moral views.
Lawsuit Updates
Thousands of terminated government workers are signing up to multiple class-action lawsuits being filed to challenge the Trump Administration’s firings of probationary employees.
A new lawsuit was filed Thursday by nine LGBTQ+, health, and HIV organizations over Trump’s executive orders erasing federal recognition of transgender people.
Judge Ana Reyes delivered a scathing critique of the Trump Administration’s “demeaning,” “biologically inaccurate,” and “frankly ridiculous” language in his anti-trans executive orders in a hearing over a lawsuit filed by transgender military service members against the Department of Defense’s new restrictions on transgender health care and banning of new transgender recruits.
On Wednesday, a federal appeals court denied the Justice Department’s bid to reinstate Trump’s executive order denying birthright citizenship, setting the stage for a potential Supreme Court showdown.
Environmental groups filed two lawsuits against the Trump Administration on Wednesday over the opening of federal waters to oil and gas drilling, marking the first environmental lawsuits filed against the second Trump Administration.
The NAACP Legal Defense Fund and Lambda Legal filed suit against the Trump Administration on Wednesday over executive orders targeting DEI programs and gender-based discrimination protections, arguing that the orders intentionally targeted Black and transgender people for discrimination.
Inside Higher Ed has published a guide to lawsuits filed by higher education groups against the Trump Administration’s attacks on research funding, education, data access, and more.
CalMatters has published a webpage tracking the many lawsuits filed by California state officials against Trump administration actions and executive orders.
