Seattle (July 31, 2025) – Today, Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison announced a lawsuit filed on behalf of the City against the Trump Administration for Executive Orders that unlawfully tie federal grant funds to the Administration’s policy preferences on diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI), and gender ideology.
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell joined City Attorney Davison at a Thursday news conference to announce the lawsuit, which challenges two Executive Orders (EO):
• EO No. 14168 “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” – issued Jan. 20, 2025
• EO No. 14173 “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity” – issued Jan. 21, 2025
“There are limits to presidential authority and no one, not even Mr. Trump, can ignore the constraints of the rule of law,” said City Attorney Davison. “This is another attempt at the federal executive level to overreach into areas of local control. Federal law is not made by one person’s edicts, but by the legislative branch, and it is interpreted and applied by the judicial branch. These are coercive attempts at control by threatening federal funds and linking them to projects and initiatives that are entirely unrelated.”
Mayor Harrell added: “As the Trump administration continues to try to erase the letters ‘DEI’ from the alphabet, Seattle recognizes what diversity, equity, and inclusion actually mean: That giving every person a fair shot improves outcomes and a level playing field is one of the most basic principles of a strong and just America,” said Mayor Harrell. “When Trump unlawfully tries to withhold critical federal funding by attacking access to opportunity and our LGBTQ+ community, we will pursue every avenue to protect our people and our priorities.”
The lawsuit, filed today in Federal Court in the Western District of Washington, asks the Court to declare that the Executive Orders and the agency actions implementing them are unlawful and unconstitutional. The suit further asks the Court to prevent the Administration from implementing and enforcing the Executive Orders against Seattle.
The City has the legal authority and appropriations authority to spend hundreds of millions in federal funds this year to support major safety initiatives, as well as vital infrastructure projects.
Since President Trump’s return to office, the City has advanced several legal and legislative efforts to protect residents from unlawful federal actions and funding cuts, including a lawsuit challenging threats to cities with sanctuary policies, and a lawsuit over frozen counterterrorism funds through the Securing the Cities program. An injunction was granted in the first lawsuit in April, and DHS released a portion of the overdue counterterrorism funds owed to Seattle in June.
To protect critical investments in human services from Trump’s funding cuts, Mayor Harrell and Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck announced a new proposal last month to raise $90 million in revenue to protect investments in human services, which is currently being considered by the City Council. Additionally, the mayor signed legislation in the spring that strengthens local protections for people seeking gender-affirming and reproductive health care to support the LGBTQIA+ community in response to federal actions.
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