National Urban League v. Trump
Lambda Legal and the Legal Defense Fund (LDF), along with co-counsel Covington & Burling, LLP filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on behalf of the National Urban League, and the AIDS Foundation Chicago, challenging three anti-equity Trump executive orders targeting diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) programs. These orders also attempt to erase transgender people from public life.
These orders are already causing serious harm. They end equity-related grants, forbid federally funded entities from engaging in DEIA programs, and stop federally funded entities from recognizing the existence of transgender people. Organizations that provide critical social and health services like HIV treatment, fair housing, equal employment opportunities, affordable credit, and many others, are being forced to either abandon their missions or lose the federal funding they depend on to serve communities most in need. The people most at risk are people of color, women, LGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities, and people living with HIV, who have long faced systemic discrimination. We argue that the executive orders violate our clients’ First Amendment right to free speech by censoring their views on DEIA and transgender people, their Fifth Amendment due process rights because the orders are so vague that organizations cannot know what is and is not prohibited, and the Fifth Amendment’s equal protection guarantee by targeting Black and transgender people with particular hostility.
We are asking the court to declare the executive orders unlawful and unconstitutional, block the Trump Administration from enforcing them, and are currently waiting for the court to rule on the government’s motion to dismiss the case.
- February 19, 2025: Lambda Legal, LDF, and Covington & Burling, LLP file a federal lawsuit on behalf of nonprofit organizations challenging three executive orders that ban DEIA programs and erase transgender people from public life. Read a brief summary of the original complaint.
- February 28, 2025: With federal funding already at risk and organizations facing pressure to abandon their missions, plaintiffs file a motion for a preliminary injunction, asking the court to block enforcement of the executive orders while the case proceeds.
- March 19. 2025: Plaintiffs argue before the court for a preliminary injunction.
- May 2, 2025: The court denies the motion for a preliminary injunction, leaving the organizations and the communities they serve exposed to even more funding cuts and program closures while the case continues.
- June 27, 2025: Plaintiffs file an amended complaint, pressing forward with their legal challenge. The National Fair Housing Alliance is voluntarily dismissed from the case, though it continues to oppose the administration’s actions.
- August 8, 2025: The government moves to dismiss the case, seeking to shut down the legal challenge entirely.
- September 12, 2025: Plaintiffs oppose the motion to dismiss, arguing the case must go forward so the court can squarely address the harm these executive orders are causing to communities of color, transgender people, and people living with HIV.