Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul discusses a lawsuit against the federal government at a news conference in January 2025. (Capitol News Illinois photo by Andrew Adams)
Article Summary
- Illinois has filed or joined 51 lawsuits against the Trump administration between January 2025 and January 2026, challenging a wide range of executive orders, funding freezes and regulatory changes.
- Illinois has served as lead plaintiff in several high-profile lawsuits, including challenges to the deployment of National Guard troops to Chicago, aggressive federal immigration enforcement during Operation Midway Blitz and efforts to condition federal emergency and public safety funding tied to immigration policy.
- While most cases remain ongoing, courts have issued permanent or preliminary injunctions in numerous challenges — and in several instances the administration has backed down, restoring funds or abandoning contested policies.
This summary was written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.
SPRINGFIELD — Illinois has filed lawsuits early and often against the Trump administration since the president’s return to power last year.
The state challenged Trump’s executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship less than a day after he took office.
Fifty more suits followed as of late January — roughly one per week.
“It’s been 365 days, but together, we remain resolute and clear eyed and ready to continue our fight,” Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said at a Chicago news conference this month to mark the anniversary. He added, though, that “the strain has been a real one.”
Read more: ‘365 days of chaos’: Illinois Democrats reflect on 1st year of Trump’s 2nd term | Illinois to withhold nearly $500M in spending, citing federal uncertainty
Raoul said “collaboration has been critical to being able to handle the load,” with his staff meeting with those of the 23 other Democratic state attorneys general daily. Communication among the attorneys general themselves occurs two to three times per week, he said.
Illinois has been the lead plaintiff in four cases — two of which are specific to actions within the state’s borders. In all, the cases cover a wide range of subjects — though there are many parallels between them.
Several of the lawsuits focus on the Trump administration’s efforts to tie federal funding to sought-after policy change. The administration has moved to pause or withhold funding for programs like Medicare, Medicaid, food assistance and grants in hopes of forcing states to change their policies on immigration, diversity equity and inclusion and gender identity.
Raoul said those suits have protected over $6.6 billion in federal funding for the state.
Capitol News Illinois has compiled a list of the suits Illinois has filed or joined against the Trump administration. The vast majority are ongoing, though Raoul has notched some wins.
In more than a dozen cases, permanent injunctions or summary judgement were issued in favor of the plaintiffs — or the Trump administration backed down by restoring funding or dropping policy demands. Only two cases have been dismissed outright. Eighteen preliminary injunctions or temporary restraining orders remain in place. In all, Raoul’s office has received some form of relief in more than half the suits filed or joined.
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Here’s some of the litigation the Illinois Attorney General’s office has initiated or joined in against the Trump administration since January 2025:
Illinois-filed lawsuits
Two lawsuits deal with the federal government’s aggressive immigration enforcement campaign. The first challenged Trump’s now-abandoned plan to deploy National Guard troops to Chicago over Gov. JB Pritzker and local leaders’ strenuous objections. The other was a broader suit challenging and seeking to curtail the aggressive tactics federal immigration agents used during Operation Midway Blitz last fall.
In the former, Raoul filed suit just one day after Trump ordered the federalization of 300 Illinois National Guardsmen over Pritzker’s objections and deployed 200 members of the Texas National Guard to the nation’s third-largest city.
They were only active for a day at the Broadview Immigrations and Customs and Enforcement processing facility before U.S. District Judge April Perry issued a temporary restraining order blocking their deployment.
The Supreme Court last month denied the Trump administration’s emergency appeal of Perry’s ruling, effectively leaving the TRO in place while the case works through the courts. A week later, Trump announced he was abandoning plans to deploy the guard.
Read more: Supreme Court rebuffs Trump’s planned National Guard deployment to Chicago | 1st Operation Midway Blitz-related trial ends in acquittal after other cases fell apart
In the latter, Raoul accused the feds of “causing turmoil and imposing a climate of fear” through its aggressive immigration campaign and withholding funds as a means of applying pressure over policy differences. That case is ongoing.
The state also sued the Federal Emergency Management Agency last year over making hundreds of millions of dollars of emergency planning grants contingent on state cooperation with federal immigration enforcement actions.
A federal judge ruled in the state’s favor in September 2025.
But soon after, the state learned of another attempt to divert funding: the reallocation of $100 million in public safety and disaster relief funds “away from Illinois and other states around the country.” Illinois’ cut was worth $30 million, Raoul estimated.
As a result, Illinois led another lawsuit challenging the reallocation, which amounted to a 69% reduction in State Homeland Security Grant Program funds.
The court granted Raoul summary judgement and funding was restored without the Trump administration’s added conditions.
Other prominent lawsuits
Oregon v. Trump challenged the president’s imposition of 10% tariffs on all countries. Washington v. Trump seeks to halt Trump’s executive order declaring an end to birthright citizenship. A nationwide injunction was granted in the latter case and both are now awaiting a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.
California v. Trump challenges an executive order seeking to require documented proof of citizenship to vote and prohibit the counting of absentee ballots received after Election Day. A preliminary injunction is in place and the case is ongoing.
California Infrastructure & Economic Development Bank v. Citibank challenges the freezing of federal grant funds authorized under the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act for green infrastructure projects. Washington v. U.S. Department of Transportation seeks to unfreeze grants for the buildout of electric vehicle charging infrastructure, after the feds withheld $117 million from Illinois. A preliminary injunction blocking that freeze was issued. Both cases are ongoing.
Oregon v. Kennedy challenges a Department of Health and Human Services declaration that would bar health care providers from participating in Medicare and Medicaid if they provide gender-affirming care for transgender minors. The rules have not yet taken effect and the case is pending. New York v. U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, filed in January, challenges the administration’s move to withhold potentially hundreds of billions of dollars in grant funding from states that refuse to comply with the administration’s definitions of sex and gender.
Raoul has also joined three lawsuits challenging the Trump administration’s efforts to restrict access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Those cases targeted attempts to force states to hand over sensitive personal data of SNAP recipients, strip benefits from certain lawful immigrants and suspend payments during a federal shutdown. In each case, the courts have blocked the efforts or the administration backed down. About 1.9 million Illinois residents receive SNAP benefits.
In other cases, the federal government has sued Illinois, including for its full unredacted voter rolls. Illinois is one of more than 20 states fighting the federal government’s efforts in similar cases. Illinois’ case is ongoing, although a federal judge in Oregon rejected the Department of Justice’s lawsuit for that state’s rolls this week.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
