Fighting federal government pays off – California’s legal challenges have restored at least $168 billion in federal funding
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Aug 4, 2025

Fighting federal government pays off – California's legal challenges have restored at least $168 billion in federal funding

What you need to know: California's proactive efforts to defend its values against the federal administration have resulted in at least $168 billion in federal funding remaining in the state. Spending $5 million to support the litigation, this represents a 3,360,000% (3.4 million percent) return on investment.

SACRAMENTO – Acting as the first and last line of defense against the Trump Administration's incessant barrage of illegal executive orders, baseless actions, and widespread dismantling of our country's rule of law, Governor Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta announced protecting more than $168 billion in federal funding coming into the state through numerous court efforts.

"California's early, proactive, and defensive actions have helped California maintain its values in the face of wholesale attacks against our families and communities, while also serving as a backstop against tyrannical actions by President Trump and those who aim to ignore the rule of law. As the federal government continues to attack our state, California will keep defending itself, its values, and its people."

Governor Gavin Newsom

In coordination with Attorney General Rob Bonta, California has filed 37 lawsuits, leading or co-leading 23 of them, and separately filed more than 40 amicus briefs in support of other litigation against the Trump Administration in just six months. In the 19 cases where California has sought and a district court has ruled on early relief, the state has succeeded in 17 of them with 13 orders blocking President Trump's illegal actions currently in effect.

These actions have ensured that an estimated $168 billion continued to flow to the state through a single early lawsuit challenging the President's illegal and sweeping freeze of federal funding. California's continued court actions have also protected an estimated $11.1 billion in federal grant funding from successive targeted efforts by the Trump Administration to defend California's values. California has also secured concessions and reversals outside of court, including the Department of Education's recent decision to restore funding it had illegally frozen just days after California filed a lawsuit.

"In his first week in office, President Trump went after a full-third of California's budget – and we went to court less than 24 hours later and stopped him in his tracks. When the Administration's first effort to freeze all federal funding to California failed, it changed course, flooding the zone with near-constant attempts to cut off funding like a dangerous and unruly game of whack-a-mole. But this is not a game. We're talking about people's livelihoods, their health, their education, and in some cases even their lives. That's why every time the President breaks the law, my office stands ready to take him to court," said Attorney General Bonta. "For every dollar we've been given by the Governor and the Legislature in Special Session funding, we've returned more than $33,600. I'm proud of my incredible team who have been working around the clock to protect California's people, values, and resources in the face of relentless attacks. We know that this work is just the beginning, but we are not backing down. Too much is at stake, whether it be school programs for our kids, research for our future, medical care for our sick, or infrastructure that keeps our cars driving and planes in the air. California will continue to fight at every turn to hold the President and his Administration accountable to the Constitution they swore to uphold."

A significant return on investment

In late 2024, Governor Newsom convened a special session to set aside state money to pay for legal costs to combat then President-elect Trump's administration. With support from the Legislature, the state dedicated $25 million for the California Department of Justice (CA DOJ) and other state agencies to challenge and defend against illegal actions by the Trump Administration and another $25 million to support legal aid for vulnerable Californians in civil proceedings.

Newsom v. Trump: the unlawful federalization of the National Guard

In this emergency litigation, California challenged orders by President Trump to federalize the California National Guard. The federal government's orders came without authorization from the governor and against the wishes of local law enforcement.

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Nearly two months after the unlawful federalization of the California National Guard, and deployment of almost 5,000 soldiers in the Los Angeles area, all but 300 National Guard members are expected to go home soon. So far, 4,700 soldiers have demobilized or begun demobilizing. The President should allow the remaining soldiers to go back to their families, communities, and civilian professions as doctors, law enforcement and teachers. This case is going to trial, led by CA DOJ attorneys, to establish that the military efforts on the ground violate federal law.

California's early wins in court

Through litigation brought on by the CA DOJ, the state has rejected the successive targeted efforts by the Trump Administration to terminate, impound, or condition specific funding for education, healthcare, transportation, and more; defended constitutional rights like birthright citizenship and the right to vote; and stopped the dismantling of federal agencies like U.S. Health and Human Services and AmeriCorps, among other relief to the states.
  • 1/3 of the state's budget: After the Office of Management and Budget issued a directive that purported to freeze nearly $3 trillion in federal funding, California led a multistate coalition in filing a lawsuit challenging the directive. The CA DOJ secured an immediate temporary restraining order and subsequent preliminary injunction, preserving roughly $168 billion in federal funding for California, representing about one-third of the State's budget. These are tax dollars coming back into California, which contributes to the federal budget as a net-donor state.
  • Transportation funding: California receives approximately $7 billion in grant funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) each year to support and maintain the roads, highways, railways, airways, and bridges that connect our communities and carry our residents to their workplaces and their homes. In June, the CA DOJ secured a court order blocking the DOT from imposing unlawful immigration enforcement conditions on this grant funding.
  • Education funding: The CA DOJ protected $939 million for California schools last week when the U.S. Department of Education reversed its decision to withhold vital education funding just weeks before the school year was set to start in the face of a multistate lawsuit. This funding supports key programs for after school and summer learning, teacher preparation, and to support students learning English.
  • Public health funding: The state also protected approximately $11 billion in critical public health funding nationwide, including roughly $972 million for California, through litigation challenging and subsequent court orders blocking the abrupt termination of federal funding for grants that provide essential support for a wide range of urgent public health needs, including identifying, tracking, and addressing infectious diseases; ensuring access to immunizations; and modernizing critical public health infrastructure.
  • Electric vehicle infrastructure funding: After the Trump Administration sought to withhold billions of dollars in funding approved by bipartisan majorities in Congress for electric vehicle charging infrastructure, California filed a lawsuit and secured a court order restoring more than $300 million in funding previously awarded to California.

Continuing to protect our California values
  • Stopping the dismantling of our democracy: From his first days in office, President Trump has made clear his desire to eliminate many federal agencies and has sought to do so by dismantling the federal government from within. The CA DOJ has fought to halt these efforts, securing court orders restoring AmeriCorps programs and funding; blocking the mass firing and restructuring of US HHS; and reversing the dismantling of several smaller agencies including the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
  • Defending birthright citizenship: In the state Attorney General's first case against the second Trump Administration, just one day after President Trump took office, the CA DOJ filed a lawsuit challenging the President's unconstitutional executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship. At stake are an estimated 24,500 children born in California each year who would be denied the citizenship they are entitled to under the U.S. Constitution. The CA DOJ, with a coalition of attorneys general from across the country, has won multiple court orders barring implementation of this order nationwide as litigation continues.
  • Safeguarding California's sensitive private data: The state has filed multiple lawsuits to protect Californians' personal and private data from misuse by the federal government. The CA DOJ secured a court order blocking the Department of Government Efficiency's efforts to access Americans' financial data; sued the Trump Administration for illegally sharing Medicaid data with ICE; and challenged (https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-bonta-sues-trump-administration-over-illegal-demands-states) the U.S. Department of Agriculture's illegal demands that states turn over the sensitive and personal data of SNAP recipients.

Press releases (https://www.gov.ca.gov/category/press-releases/), Recent news (https://www.gov.ca.gov/category/recent-news/)

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