A Trump-aligned legal group is accusing Democrat-run states of filing baseless lawsuits against the Trump administration and is calling on Congress to investigate. America First Legal, the nonprofit founded by Trump adviser Stephen Miller, sent a letter Monday to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH), urging him to open a probe into what the group calls a coordinated “lawfare” campaign by blue states against the president’s agenda.
“America First Legal Foundation has uncovered a nationwide pattern to subvert the agenda of the Trump administration: Democrat-controlled states have filed lawsuits against the Trump administration, yet in many cases, the states are unable to show any support for their alleged injuries,” AFL legal counsel Will Scolinos wrote.
“AFL’s investigation reveals that these Democrat-controlled states are pleading allegations of harm for which there is no corresponding evidence to support their claims,” the letter read. “The fundamental problem is not merely that courts are failing to rigorously enforce standing requirements, but that state attorneys general are filing complaints premised on speculative injuries that their own client agencies cannot substantiate.”
There are currently more than 200 active cases challenging various Trump administration policies, according to Lawfare Media’s litigation tracker. Dozens have been filed by California, Colorado, Minnesota, New York, and other Democrat-controlled states. AFL’s investigation found that many of those lawsuits were filed without concrete evidence backing up the alleged harms claimed by the states.
The group pointed to two specific examples. Four states that sued the Trump administration over its transgender policies told AFL they “lacked records” necessary to respond to inquiries about the legal basis of those lawsuits. Five of 20 states that joined a lawsuit over the Department of Homeland Security accessing federal Medicaid data, to check whether illegal immigrants were receiving benefits, similarly couldn’t produce records AFL requested.
“Such conduct not only undermines the integrity of the federal court system but also abuses the judicial process to obstruct the lawful policies of the Trump Administration, policies that the American people voted for,” the letter said.
