On Monday, the City of Chicago, together with eight other local governments, filed a federal lawsuit challenging new and unlawful conditions imposed by the Trump Administration on grant awards from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The lawsuit seeks to protect tens of millions of dollars in critical funding that supports Chicago’s ability to prepare for and respond to emergencies, including terrorism, public safety threats, and natural disasters. For more than 75 years, the federal government has partnered with local governments to support emergency response and disaster preparedness through DHS and FEMA grants. These funds help cities train first responders, modernize emergency operations centers, build public alert systems, and purchase life-saving equipment such as bomb squad hazmat suits. The DHS conditions would require the City to certify that they do not operate any “programs that advance or promote DEI, DEIA, or discriminatory equity ideology” or lose the funding. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in the Northern District of Illinois and argues that the new conditions violate the law in fundamental ways:

Constitutional Separation of Powers – By imposing these new funding conditions, the Trump Administration is usurping the spending authority of Congress.

Arbitrary and Capricious – The new conditions are unsupported by any reasoned explanation and are not tethered to the purpose of the grants.

The plaintiffs are seeking an order from the Court declaring the challenged conditions unlawful and enjoining the defendants from imposing or enforcing the conditions in federal emergency grant funding.