Full list of lawsuits against Donald Trump since becoming president
Since President Donald Trump assumed office on January 20, 2025, several major lawsuits have been filed challenging his executive orders.
Why It Matters
Trump’s first-day executive orders could have a massive effect on U.S. life, from the reorganization of the federal government to no longer granting birthright citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants.
Newsweek reached out to the White House via email for comment on Wednesday.
What To Know
Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
Termination of Birthright Citizenship
President Trump signed an executive order aiming to end birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to noncitizen parents. Attorneys general from 22 states filed lawsuits in Massachusetts arguing that the order violates the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
A second lawsuit was filed in Boston on Tuesday by anonymous plaintiff O. Doe, who is pregnant, and the Brazilian Worker Center and the advocacy group La Colaborativa.
The lawsuit says that Doe’s child “will be one of the targeted citizens.”
“By purporting to unilaterally strip the targeted citizens of their right to citizenship, the EO violates the Fourteenth Amendment and corresponding statutory protections,” it says. “And because the EO treats the targeted citizens as a subordinate caste of native-born Americans, entitled to fewer rights, benefits, and entitlements than other Americans due to their parents’ alienage, it also violates their right to equal protection under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment.”
Various civil rights groups filed additional lawsuits in federal courts in Boston and New Hampshire.
Transparency at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)
The creation of DOGE aims to streamline federal operations and cut trillions of dollars from the federal budget annually. However, it is not an official government department, and therefore, it has not given transparency groups the documents they want to assess DOGE’s operations.
Advocacy groups filed a lawsuit in Washington, D.C., on Monday to force more transparency from the new agency. The groups, Public Citizen, the State Democracy Defenders Fund and the American Federation of Government Employees, sued to ensure that the agency has open meetings and keeps searchable records.
Removing Employment Rights From Federal Workers
Trump’s executive order, signed within hours of his inauguration, is designed to strip policymaking federal employees of the legal guarantees that protect them from political purges. Trump’s executive order states that any power that federal employees have “is delegated by the President, and they must be accountable to the President.”
On Monday, the National Treasury Employee Union launched a lawsuit against the order in a federal court in Washington, D.C. The lawsuit states that the Trump order violates laws designed to protect employees from political firing.
What People Are Saying
The American Postal Workers Union said in a statement that Trump’s executive order on federal worker rights “would allow the ruling administration to reclassify many civil servants as policymaking or policy-evaluating workers, thereby removing their civil service protections and making them at-will employees. President Trump could then install whomever he pleases based on favoritism and loyalty to his administration.”
The lawsuit against the alleged lack of transparency in the DOGE states that “DOGE has already begun developing recommendations and influencing decision-making in the new administration, even though its membership lacks the fair balance required by FACA [Federal Advisory Committee Act] and its meetings and records are not open to public inspection in real time.”
What Happens Next
The federal courts will give the Trump administration time to reply to all the lawsuits.
Given the large number of states involved in the Massachusetts birthright lawsuit and the seriousness of the constitutional issues involved, it is likely to be considered by the U.S. Supreme Court.
