Wisconsin Now Up to 16 Lawsuits Against Trump Administration

State Attorney General Josh Kaul addresses reporters in 2023 at the Dane County Courthouse in Madison, Wis. <em>Angela Major/WPR</em>

Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul has joined his 16th lawsuit against the Trump administration.

The most recent legal challenge the state signed onto focuses on cuts to congressionally approved federal funding for electric vehicle infrastructure.“Congress set up a program to fund electric vehicle infrastructure around the country,” Kaul said Thursday on WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.” “Here in Wisconsin, we are in line to receive over $60 million in funds to support electric vehicle infrastructure. And whether or not President Trump agrees with that policy, it’s the law of the land.”

“His administration has said that they’re not going to award the funds that were passed in the law by Congress and signed to the law by President Biden, and that’s just not how our system of government works,” Kaul added. “The president’s job is to faithfully execute the laws, and what we have Donald Trump here doing instead is disregarding those laws and attempting to, by fiat essentially, ignore them. And that is just not how our system of government works. We have a constitutional republic, and he’s ignoring that.”

In addition, just before the electric vehicle infrastructure lawsuit was filed, Kaul joined 19 other attorneys general in a lawsuit accusing Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of dismantling the Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS. This comes in addition to the April lawsuit regarding the termination of federal grants for HHS.

Kaul said in a statement that the HHS cuts “threaten Wisconsin efforts to remove lead in Milwaukee schools, reduce maternal deaths and prevent youth tobacco use.”

“This is now the fourth suit that we have specifically relating to actions by the Department of Health and Human Services,” Kaul said on “Wisconsin Today.” “What’s going on is deeply concerning.”

Wisconsin is also part of lawsuits pertaining to the dismantling of AmeriCorps, a threat to withhold funding from state and local education agencies, a cap on research grant funding, and a lawsuit over the president’s executive order that seeks to change national election law. The number of similar cases the state is involved in has more than doubled since March.

On Friday, Wisconsin joined other states in a lawsuit about the Trump administration’s efforts to fast-track energy-related projects.

Kaul joined “Wisconsin Today” to discuss the state’s multiple legal challenges against the Trump administration.

The following was edited for clarity and brevity.

Rob Ferrett: A key part of the lawsuit for state attorneys general is showing that the case in question violates federal laws in ways that do harm here in their states. Can you spell out a little about what this means for Wisconsin? 

Josh Kaul: There are two things that I consider when I decide whether to get Wisconsin involved in a multi-state suit like this. One is: “Is there a policy that is harmful to Wisconsinites?” Secondly: “Do we have a strong legal basis for bringing a suit?”

Something we’ve really seen throughout these lawsuits is not just the Trump administration making bad policy decisions, but really flouting the laws and ignoring them — treating acts of Congress that were passed by Congress and signed into law by a president not as something that they are required to uphold, but as something they can ignore. And that’s part of the reason we had some success, and it’s the basis for a number of the suits we’ve been filing.

RF: Another suit that you joined challenges funding cuts to the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Minority Business Development Agency and the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. This week, a preliminary injunction was issued. What does this injunction mean at this point? 

JK: A preliminary injunction is an order that blocks, in this case, the Trump administration from moving forward with what it’s trying to do. So this is a significant win for us. As you indicated, it’s preliminary. This isn’t the final ruling in the case, but …  the Trump administration is blocked from effectively dismantling these three services. There are three of them here that are at issue.

And I want to highlight, in this case, some of what’s going on with these reckless DOGE-inspired cuts because the Institute of Museum and Library Services helps to fund libraries and museums in communities across the country. And libraries, of course, can be critical institutions in communities all over Wisconsin and all over the country … And so slashing them to save a few dollars that can go toward a tax cut for some of the richest people in the country, while that may seem like a good idea to Elon Musk, it’s leaving communities behind, and that’s a theme that we’re seeing throughout these attacks on our government from the Trump administration. So that’s part of the reason we’ve taken action here. And so far, we’ve received the favorable ruling on the preliminary injunction. And again, I’m hopeful that we will be successful in this case because these are agencies that were created by Congress and the president can’t unilaterally dismantle them.

RF: We’ve seen instances where, after a federal judge rules against the Trump administration, Republican members of Congress have called for impeachment or funding cuts to the particular courts they’re in. Just talk so far, no serious action taken that I’ve seen. But are you concerned about that response and that threat to judges who don’t rule in the review of those members of Congress in the right way?

JK: Absolutely, this is fundamental to our system of government. … And it’s important to note here that the judges who have been ruling against the Trump administration, some have been appointed by Democratic presidents, but some have been appointed by Republican presidents, even some appointed by Donald Trump himself. And so this is happening with judges appointed by both political parties. And Congress’ response so far has been incredibly disappointing.

It’s often Congress’ authority that the president is infringing on here. These are laws, in some cases, that Congress passed, and Donald Trump is ignoring those laws. It’s critical that branch of government step up and stand up for the rule of law, including the separation of powers, rather than trying to further this effort by attacking a coequal branch. And when the founders of this country created our system of government, they created these co equal branches to preserve our liberty — to protect it. And some of the most eloquent decisions on these issues come from conservative judges and justices. And so to see Republicans in Congress abandoning that idea to line up behind Donald Trump is disappointing, and I hope we will see a change in approaches as we move forward.

Listen to the WPR report

Wisconsin is now involved in 16 lawsuits against the Trump administration was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.