These 12 States Are Suing the Trump Administration for Policies Targeting Trans Peoplehttps://www.them.us/story/attorneys-general-sue-trump-hhs-admin-letitia-james-trans 🔗Samantha Riedel (15 Jan 2026)
Twelve state attorneys general, led by New York AG Letitia James, filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) this week, saying the agency's campaign against transgender and intersex people is discriminatory and unconstitutional.
The lawsuit, filed in Rhode Island's U.S. district court on Tuesday, contends that HHS has repeatedly violated federal law over the past year by attempting to enforce President Donald Trump's anti-"gender ideology" executive order as a part of Title IX civil rights law.
The states say that by demanding compliance with the executive order as a condition for state agencies and other programs to maintain federal funding, HHS was effectively "grafting" the order onto Title IX, though executive orders do not have the power to amend a law passed by Congress.
The plaintiff states have been "forced into an untenable position" by the Trump administration, the lawsuit argues. Not only are the Trump administration's definitions of "sex" and other terms "unscientific, patently biased, and counterfactual," they say, but following those definitions and demands would violate the states' own civil rights laws, all 12 of which have established protections for trans people.
The states allege three violations of the Administrative Procedure Act, as well as violations of the Constitution's spending clause and separation of powers. They have asked the court to declare Trump's order unlawful and to block HHS from enforcing it against states and other grantees.
