Today, a group of four cities and counties sued the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in federal court, challenging the Trump administration’s withholding of tens of millions of dollars of anti-terrorism funding unless states and local governments agree to implement certain election policies.
Harris County, El Paso County, the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County and the City of Columbus — represented by Protect Democracy, the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU, Public Rights Project, and the Jacobson Lawyers Group — argue that these conditions violate the Constitution, jeopardize public safety, and put election security at risk. Over the last two years, courts have largely blocked the administration’s repeated attempts to seize congressional and state authority over elections. Now, DHS is holding public safety funding hostage in order to coerce states and local governments into adopting some of the very policies that the administration has tried and failed to impose.
In June, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) placed new eligibility requirements on states receiving funding from the Homeland Security Grant Program, established by Congress in 2001 to help localities prevent and respond to acts of terrorism. The conditions require states to use DHS’s notoriously error-filled Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system to “verify” the citizenship of every pollworker and registered voter, mandate costly and impractical changes to electronic voting systems, and impose an arbitrary 5% manual audit of paper ballots. States who do not comply with the new requirements will be forced to forfeit 20% of their anti-terrorism grant funding.
The complaint argues that the new conditions are arbitrary and illegal in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act and violate the Constitutional separation of powers. The Constitution gives Congress—not the executive branch—exclusive authority to set the terms of federal spending. The Constitution also gives states and Congress, not the executive branch, the power to make rules for federal elections. The lawsuit comes as the Trump administration engages in a coordinated campaign to undermine the midterm elections.
The jurisdictions suing are Harris County, El Paso County, the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County and the City of Columbus.
“This is the kind of federal overreach we’ve come to expect from the Trump administration,” said Abbie Kamin, Harris County Attorney. “To threaten law enforcement and public safety funding our agencies rely on, to withhold dollars that protect our communities for a partisan power grab is not only improper, it’s dangerous. Local control of elections is embedded in our Constitution, and any attempt to upend that must be vigorously guarded against.”
“Holding critical grant funding hostage to advance a false political narrative is unlawful. It comes at the direct expense of local election offices, law enforcement agencies, and the communities they are entrusted to serve,” said El Paso County Attorney Christina Sanchez. “Local election offices already face some of the toughest oversight and requirements designed to keep their operations safe and secure. Imposing additional requirements is both costly and burdensome, while our law enforcement agencies rely on this funding to purchase critical equipment that helps protect and save lives. El Paso County joins other local jurisdictions in pushing back against this dangerous overreach imposed by a rogue and politically compromised federal agency,” Sanchez concluded.
“This lawsuit seeks to secure necessary funding that would provide equipment and training to Nashville’s first responders in handling emergency or terrorist events in our city,” said Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County’s Director of Law Tyler Yarbro. “The Trump administration wants to withhold those funds unless we implement wholly unnecessary and costly changes to our election procedures. Courts have consistently rejected the administration’s efforts to meddle in elections. We are proud to join other cities and counties across the country to ensure that our access to federal funds designated for first responders is protected.”
“Holding cities hostage by threatening anti-terrorism funding if they don’t go along with the president’s absurd election manipulation is as dangerous as it is illegal,” said Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein. “We’re fighting back to protect public safety and election integrity. We will not be bullied by this president and his administration.”
“We are asking the Court to enforce the core constitutional propositions that Congress controls the power of the purse and local governments control election procedures,” said Daniel Jacobson, founder of Jacobson Lawyers Group. “This Administration cannot hijack critical public safety funding to advance its unlawful election agenda.”
“Using essential anti-terrorism funding as leverage to dictate state election policy is a dangerous and unconstitutional misuse of federal authority,” said Protect Democracy’s Special Counsel & Program Lead for Free and Fair Elections, Jacek Pruski. “These grants were created to protect our communities from harm, not serve as a political bargaining chip to strongarm state and local leaders into accepting illegal federal election conditions.”
“The Trump administration’s actions are flatly illegal. This latest effort shows that the administration is willing to try anything — even withholding critical public safety funding — in its crusade to undermine elections,” said Eliza Sweren-Becker, Deputy Director, Voting Rights and Elections at the Brennan Center for Justice. “Claiming to advance ‘election security,’ the administration is instead undermining the security of Americans across the country. Elections are already safe and secure, and these conditions would do harm to election administration and violate the core principle of separation of powers."
“DHS is trying to use homeland security funding to dramatically reshape how local governments run their elections,” said Toby Merrill, litigation director for Public Rights Project. "These new conditions would undermine the local control that has helped make our elections safe and secure for decades. We’re proud to stand with cities and counties fighting to protect their communities from this harmful federal overreach.”
Click to read more about this case here.
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Protect Democracy is a cross-ideological non-profit group dedicated to defeating the authoritarian threat, building more resilient democratic institutions, and protecting our freedom and liberal democracy.
Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law is a nonpartisan law and policy institute that works to reform and revitalize — and when necessary defend — our country’s systems of democracy and justice.
Public Rights Project helps local governments protect civil rights. We represent cities and counties in court, train government lawyers and activate a national network of local leaders to respond to emerging threats. Since 2017, we’ve worked alongside local government officials in all 50 states to support communities and people’s rights.
Jacobson Lawyers Group PLLC is a boutique firm of former senior government attorneys and litigators, focused on representing clients who interact with the federal government.
