PROVIDENCE – In a federal lawsuit, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Neronha and 11 other Democrat attorneys general are challenging a US Department of Health and Human Services policy, which they argue illegally requires states to adhere to President Trump’s anti-transgender executive order to receive federal grants.
Filed Tuesday in US District Court in Providence, the 61-page complaint alleges HHS has required states, public universities, health agencies, hospitals, and other organizations, to certify they will follow Title IX – the law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in education programs and activities that receive federal funding – as well as Trump’s January 2025 executive order recognizing two sexes, male and female, to receive hundreds of billions of dollars in health, education, and research funding.
According to the lawsuit, the grants “fund essential programs such as training for medical personnel, cutting edge research, and the treatment and prevention of diseases.”
The cohort of attorneys general maintain their states have “long certified their compliance with Title IX,” and that the lawsuit is challenging “HHS’s grafting of an executive order” into the law. After enacting the new policy in October, HHS has continued to impose the condition “despite orders from three courts enjoining and vacating it as unlawful,” the lawsuit states.
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“A year into this Administration and they continue to impose illegal conditions on federal funding; a colossal waste of time and resources on their part since we have yet to lose a case of this kind,” Neronha, who has led or signed onto 47 lawsuits against the Trump administration within the last year, said in a statement.
Neronha co-leads the latest lawsuit with attorneys general from California, New York, and Oregon and is joined by others in Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Vermont, and Washington.
The lawsuit seeks to have the court declare the policy unlawful, and to block HHS from enforcing it.
HHS did not return a request for comment. The federal government had not yet responded to the lawsuit in court as of Thursday.
Neronha’s office said the policy has far-reaching consequences: Rhode Island receives billions of dollars in funding every year – “a significant portion of which would be subject to the newly imposed gender conditions, and therefore at risk,” officials said.
HHS has warned that recipients of the grants who do not comply with the requirements could have their funding terminated; could be mandated to repay funds they received; and could face civil or criminal liability, officials allege.
“A few issues are at play here,” Neronha said. “First, Congress has the power of the purse, not the President. It follows that discriminatory policies by the executive branch that attempt to condition funding and bully states into compliance are unlawful.”
The lawsuit alleges the change goes against previous policies across multiple federal agencies and past administrations – including Trump’s first administration – recognizing federal laws prohibiting sex discrimination also protect gender identity.
“To the extent HHS claims that the Gender Ideology [Executive Order] requires such a change, an executive order is not a sufficient basis for an agency’s adoption of a wholly new policy position, which under the [Administrative Procedure Act] must be supported by a reasoned and deliberative process,” the lawsuit states.
Additionally, the change conflicts with existing laws in many states that protect the rights of transgender people, according to Neronha’s office. In Rhode Island, for example, state law “explicitly prohibits state agencies from discriminating on the basis of gender identity or expression” and “prohibits state hiring practices and state educational programs that discriminate on the basis of gender identity or expression,” officials said.
“This is yet another distraction from an Administration that would rather target marginalized groups than do anything to help the American people,” Neronha said. “It hasn’t worked before and it won’t work here.”
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