Since taking office on Jan. 20, President Donald Trump has signed 144 executive orders (and counting), many of which are already facing legal challenges alleging constitutional violations.
Washington Attorney General Nick Brown and 22 fellow Democratic attorneys general from around the country are leading the charge, already filing 23 lawsuits to block what they call unconstitutional actions by the Trump administration.
"We're seeing a lot of threats, which [are] really fascist, frankly, and draconian in the way that they're approaching it," Brown says.
Brown spent most of his career in the public sector, serving as an Army judge advocate general from 2003 to 2007. He then served as general counsel to former Gov. Jay Inslee from 2013 to 2017 and as U.S. attorney for the Western District of Washington from 2021 to 2023.
Notable lawsuits Brown's team is working on include efforts to protect birthright citizenship, block the defunding of AmeriCorps and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and prevent the defunding of National Institutes of Health grants.
BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP
Washington state is no stranger to suing the Trump administration. Gov. Bob Ferguson sued the prior Trump administration 97 times when he was the state's attorney general. Brown has continued that spirit, with over a dozen lawsuits filed.
On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order challenging the interpretation of the 14th Amendment, which says in its first sentence: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside." Trump's executive order says the amendment does not extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the United States.
On Jan. 21, Washington filed suit and later obtained a restraining order against the executive order. The complaint states that in 2022, there were 153,000 births nationwide to two undocumented parents. In Washington, there were about 7,000 births to undocumented mothers, and about 4,000 births to two parents who lacked legal residency.
The Washington Attorney General's Office had prepared for the possibility of this executive order before Brown took office in January. That preparation made Washington a leader in the lawsuit, along with Arizona, Illinois and Oregon, and 19 states that joined later. The lawsuit is moving toward a hearing at the U.S. Supreme Court on May 15.
"A lot of research has gone into some of the possible actions that the president might take, and birthright was certainly near the top of their list," Brown says. "During the course of 2024, the office did a lot of work specifically on preparing a potential case, and working with experts to analyze the demographic impacts of a birthright citizenship order, writing draft complaints and declarations."
Brown says the birthright order violates the Constitution, and the president cannot issue such orders without a constitutional amendment, which requires a two-thirds vote in Congress and three-fourths of states to ratify it.
It's critical that Washington stand up for all its residents, regardless of their citizenship status, and this executive order is invalid, says Samuel Smith, legal aid director of Manzanita House. The nonprofit provides legal services for immigrants and refugees in Eastern Washington.
"To stand by and do nothing while attempts are made to ignore the Constitution would be a failure of our system, a failure of the rule of law," Smith writes by email. "I am proud of Washington state for taking action against these policies in the court of law — it is the right thing to do."
FEDERAL FUNDING CUTS
The Trump administration also faces multistate litigation from Washington and others over its funding cuts to AmeriCorps, the National Institutes of Health, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Brown says litigation is important to fight the illegal way the president is taking actions — Trump can't cut funding to programs that were funded and authorized by Congress.
"My role is not to get into the policy debate, but to stop illegal conduct, whether that's from the president or anybody else," Brown says. "At the same time, the harms from those cuts are very real."
In late April, Trump's so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, gutted AmeriCorps program staff and slashed funding for AmeriCorps programs nationwide.
AmeriCorps is the federal agency for national service and volunteerism, employing 200,000 Americans nationwide. Brown says the agency provides vital support for community organizations and individuals in underserved communities with vulnerable populations.
The DOGE cuts resulted in at least 85% of AmeriCorps employees being put on leave and told they will be fired, and canceled $400 million in grants.
In February, the National Institutes of Health, led by Trump appointee Jay Bhattacharya, announced $4 billion in spending cuts, claiming that $9 billion of $35 billion in grant funds went to overhead costs for research staff and other needs.
According to a press release, the University of Washington received more than 1,220 NIH grants in fiscal year 2024, totaling over $648 million. Among other things, the grants funded trauma research for victims of sexual assault, prevention of chlamydia infections, and the impact of air pollution on Alzheimer's disease.
The university has already experienced a delay in more than $61 million of grant renewals, and expects to ultimately face even steeper cuts.
On March 14, Trump signed an executive order proposing elimination of the Institute of Museum and Library Services and directing the Office of Management and Budget to reject funding requests from the agency, except for those necessary to wind it down. The order ended grants and contracts, and put 63 of the 75 employees on paid administrative leave. Staff were notified of an agency-wide reduction in force to take place in May. On May 2, Trump's fiscal 2026 budget request proposed eliminating the institute, which supports museums and libraries nationwide through grantmaking, research and policy development.
Federal overreach requires a coordinated response to protect people's rights and freedoms, says Vanessa Torres Hernandez, advocacy director of the ACLU of Washington.
The ACLU is suing, along with early child care advocacy groups, to prevent cuts to the Head Start program. Since 1965, the program has provided free preschool services and child care to hundreds of thousands of low-income children. The lawsuit states that the program serves 14,300 children in Washington.
"The work of state officials, including those in Attorney General Brown's office, as well as advocacy organizations and legal aid groups are essential to building a firewall against the worst abuses of the federal administration," Hernandez says via email. "We are grateful for the critical work Attorney General Brown and his office are doing to stand up to the president's attempts to strip us of our fundamental rights."
Brown says the legal system is still working: Lawyers debate, judges issue rulings, and the federal government is mostly complying. Still, he says we're tiptoeing around authoritarianism, and he urges people to be civically engaged.
"For us as AGs, our cases are largely based on our ability to tell stories from the people that we serve," Brown says. "So many of our lawsuits are based on our relationships with individuals and community partners, and I hope that people still continue to engage with our office." ♦
