2025 has been a momentous year. To put it mildly. For the American people. For
the fate of our democracy. For Public Citizen itself.

If you’ve been following our emails, you know we have sued the administration 23
times since Donald Trump returned to power. And even though the legal system
tends to move very slowly, we have already achieved meaningful results in over a
third of these cases (with more wins expected in the months ahead).

We’ve also told you about our multifaceted, interdisciplinary strategy for
continuing to stand up to the Trump regime — in the courts, in Congress, on the
streets, and more — in the coming year.

With just a few days left in 2025, we wanted to give our million-plus supporters
another chance to review the significant work we did together this year and our
comprehensive plan for keeping that critical work going in the new year.

In this email:

* We recap all 23 of our lawsuits against the administration, with an update on
the status of each case.

* We go through some frequently asked questions about the lawsuits and our
other work to confront the Trump agenda.

* And we outline our “soup to nuts” strategy to continue fighting the Trump
regime in 2026.

This might be the longest email we’ve ever sent — and we’ve sent some long ones
over the years. (Heck, it may well be the longest email *anyone* has ever sent
you.) We don’t expect everyone to read every word — at least not in one sitting.
We know it’s a busy time of year. And we know this is not the only email in your
inbox.

But the threats of Trumpism — to our freedom, to our livelihoods, to the
progress we’ve made as a society over decades and decades, to our democracy, to
the very continuation of our country in any recognizable form — simply cannot be
summed up in a few lines.

And we think you deserve to know more, not less, about the serious and
consequential work we are doing together to confront those threats, to stand up
to Trump and his assorted henchmen and sycophants, to do everything we can to
save our country.

So take in what you can today, and come back to this note when you have a minute
or two of relative downtime. (We’ll send it a few times to help folks not lose
track of it.)

Since this is the most critical time of the entire year for the online
fundraising that is essential to a nonprofit organization like Public Citizen,
please consider donating today if you can.
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Anything you can chip in — $5 or $25, $50 or $100, $500 or even more — will make
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CONTRIBUTE NOW [[link removed]]
Or join our popular Monthly Giving program (if you haven’t already) and YOUR
CONTRIBUTION WILL BE MATCHED DOLLAR-FOR-DOLLAR each month for a full year.
There’s no better way to help make sure we have the ongoing financial resources
to fight Trump day after day after day.
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If you’ve donated to Public Citizen already, thank you. If a donation is not
right, we understand. Either way, thank you for being part of Public Citizen —
including by reading emails like this one.

OK, on to a very long but also very important message ...

23 LAWSUITS AND COUNTING

Public Citizen has filed 23 lawsuits against the regime since Donald Trump
returned to power. There will be more to come in the year ahead, but we wanted
to give you an update on all the cases so far.

First, one important note: Lawsuits against the federal government can move
slowly. Both sides are given a lot of time to submit and respond to filings.
With the Trump administration acting so recklessly, this deliberate pace can be
frustrating, to say the least. That’s why seeking temporary restraining orders
and preliminary injunctions is a key part of our strategy in many cases.

Most of our lawsuits against the regime have not yet reached the point of a
final ruling. But in many of these cases, we have succeeded in stopping, or at
least reducing, the damage that Trump is trying to inflict. And when these cases
are ultimately decided, we of course believe we should prevail.

Here’s an as-quick-as-we-can-make-it recap of each of our 23 lawsuits so far,
starting with the most recent and working back from there.

LAWSUIT #23 — CONSUMER PROTECTION
DATE FILED: December 5, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To stop Trump from completely defunding the Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau.
BACKGROUND: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was established after the
2008 financial crisis to keep everyday Americans from getting ripped off by Big
Banks. (Public Citizen played a major role in creating the CFPB.) Trump put one
of his top lieutenants — Russell Vought, a primary architect of the infamous Project 2025 manifesto — in charge of the Bureau. Vought is refusing to comply with a law
that requires him to request funding for the CFPB from the Federal Reserve.
WHERE THINGS STAND: We filed a motion for summary judgment — meaning we asked
the court to issue a final ruling right away (because the administration is
doing something obviously illegal) and order Vought to request funding for the
CFPB as required by law.

LAWSUIT #22 — STUDENT LOANS
DATE FILED: November 4, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To prevent the Trump administration from denying student loan
forgiveness to borrowers just because the regime doesn’t like the kind of work
they do.
BACKGROUND: In 2007, Congress created the Public Service Loan Forgiveness
program to help people who go into public service work, including: public school
teachers, first responders, social workers, military personnel, librarians,
government workers, people who work at homeless shelters and food banks, nurses
and other employees at nonprofit hospitals, people who provide services to
survivors of domestic violence, and many other kinds of workers. Under Trump’s
Education Secretary — the billionaire former professional wrestling magnate
Linda McMahon — the administration has decided to deny public service loan
forgiveness to borrowers whose work it just doesn’t like.
WHERE THINGS STAND: The administration has until early January to file its
initial response to our suit.

LAWSUIT #21 — EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION
DATE FILED: October 20, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To block a directive telling staff at the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission to ignore an entire category of civil rights violations.
BACKGROUND: An employment practice that negatively affects some people more than
others because of traits like race, sex, age, religion, national origin, sexual
orientation, or disability is a form of discrimination known as “disparate
impact.” Under Trump, staff at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission have
been ordered to stop investigating disparate impact claims.
WHERE THINGS STAND: The case was dismissed. The judge ruled that our client was
not qualified to sue, but did not rule on whether the administration is acting
lawfully.

LAWSUIT #20 — COMMERCIAL DRIVERS LICENSES
DATE FILED: October 20, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To challenge a rule from Trump’s Department of Transportation that
prohibits asylum seekers, refugees, and DACA recipients — immigrants who are legally authorized to work here — from getting, renewing, or even keeping existing commercial
driver’s licenses.
BACKGROUND: The new rule was based solely on the immigration status of the
workers. There is no evidence of a safety issue or any other rational basis for
barring people who have passed the written and road tests, and who have legal
work authorization, from working as drivers. The administration put the rule
into effect immediately, with no advance notice, directly threatening the
livelihoods of 200,000 truck drivers, bus drivers, and delivery drivers. The
rule will also hurt countless businesses, both large and small — as well as
schools and potentially millions of American consumers — that depend on these
drivers.
WHERE THINGS STAND: The court granted our motion asking it to put the rule on
hold while the case proceeds.***

LAWSUIT #19 — FREE SPEECH FOR FEDERAL WORKERS
DATE FILED: October 3, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To stop the Trump administration from violating the First Amendment
rights of federal workers.
BACKGROUND: With the recent government shutdown, hundreds of thousands of
government employees set up “out-of-office” emails before being furloughed. But
at Trump’s Department of Education — run by the billionaire former professional
wrestling magnate Linda McMahon — these emails were replaced with a partisan
message blaming “Democrat Senators” for the shutdown. That change was made
without the employees’ consent and without notice that partisan messages were
being sent in their names. In essence, they were being forced to make a
political statement, whether they agreed with it or not.
WHERE THINGS STAND: We won. The court granted our motion and ordered the
Department of Education to remove the partisan messages from the employees’
emails.***

LAWSUIT #18 — HEALTH RESEARCH
DATE FILED: August 21, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To restore health research grants from a critical agency within the
Department of Health and Human Services.
BACKGROUND: In 1999, Congress established the Agency for Health Research and
Quality (AHRQ) within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to
support research into how America’s health system works, how to support patients
and clinicians in choosing the best care, how to improve health by improving
healthcare delivery, and more. Under the “leadership” of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,
HHS has destroyed AHRQ’s capacity to process grant applications, withheld
decisions on pending grant applications, and refused to spend appropriated
funds.
WHERE THINGS STAND: The court ordered HHS to hold onto the funds it refused to
spend — rather than return those funds to the Treasury Department — so that the
funding will remain available to be spent if we win the case.

LAWSUIT #17 — JOB CORPS PROGRAM
DATE FILED: June 18, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To prevent the Trump administration from closing Job Corps centers
all across the country and shutting down the Job Corps program.
BACKGROUND: Congress created the Job Corps program in 1964 to provide vocational
and academic training to low-income young people. The program has continued with
ongoing bipartisan support in Congress — even when Richard Nixon wanted to
shrink it and Ronald Reagan wanted to eliminate it altogether. But the Trump
regime, in flagrant defiance of the law, wants to suspend the program and close
all 99 Job Corps centers nationwide. Public Citizen, with Southern Poverty Law
Center as co-counsel, filed a class-action lawsuit challenging the
administration’s unlawful attempt to close the Job Corps centers.
WHERE THINGS STAND: The court granted our motion for a preliminary injunction —
meaning the regime cannot mothball the Job Corps program while the case proceeds
— with the judge writing that the administration’s actions were “unprecedented”
and that it “unequivocally” acted illegally in its scheme to kill the
program.***

LAWSUIT #16 — HUNGER IN AMERICA
DATE FILED: June 10, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To stop the Trump regime from shutting down the National Hunger
Clearinghouse and hotline.
BACKGROUND: For more than 30 years, Congress has required the U.S. Department of
Agriculture to contract with a nonprofit organization to serve as an information
clearinghouse for food assistance resources. Hunger Free America has held that
contract since 2014, helping tens of thousands of individuals and families
access food banks, soup kitchens, and government programs. But in May — with no
explanation or warning — the Trump administration terminated the current
contract and took no action to find another nonprofit to maintain the
clearinghouse.
WHERE THINGS STAND: In response to our lawsuit, the administration complied with
the law and awarded the contract to our client.***

LAWSUIT #15 — CONSUMER PROTECTION
DATE FILED: May 21, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To block Trump’s unlawful firing of members of the Consumer Product
Safety Commission.
BACKGROUND: The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) conducts
product-safety research, sets standards, and issues recalls. Under federal law,
the agency has five commissioners who serve staggered seven-year terms. To
ensure the CPSC’s independence, Congress stipulated that commissioners can be
removed by the president prior to the end of their terms only “for neglect of
duty or malfeasance in office but for no other cause.” However — with no
explanation and no suggestion of neglect of duty or malfeasance — Trump
illegally attempted to terminate three CPSC commissioners whose terms are not
complete.
WHERE THINGS STAND: The District Court ruled in our favor, but the Supreme Court
put that ruling on hold while the case proceeds (meaning the commissioners are
fired — for now).

LAWSUIT #14 — WORKER HEALTH AND SAFETY
DATE FILED: May 14, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To preserve the National Institute for Occupational Safety and
Health.
BACKGROUND: The Trump regime has been quietly dismantling the National Institute
for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), which protects workers in high-risk
industries like mining, firefighting, construction, and healthcare. Under Robert
F. Kennedy Jr.’s “leadership” at the Department of Health and Human Services,
where NIOSH is housed, the majority of its staff have been fired, slated for
termination, or otherwise forced out. As a result, workers throughout the
country who otherwise would have been safe will get sick, hurt, and killed on
the job.
WHERE THINGS STAND: We are waiting for the court to rule on the administration’s
motion for the case to be dismissed.

LAWSUIT #13 — HUMAN RIGHTS
DATE FILED: April 24, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To prevent the Trump administration from shutting down offices
within the Department of Homeland Security that safeguard civil rights.
BACKGROUND: Congress has created three offices within the Department of Homeland
Security to make sure DHS respects civil rights and civil liberties, to help
immigrants who experience problems dealing with department bureaucracy, and to
monitor conditions in detention facilities. In March, DHS — under the
“leadership” of Trump’s Homeland Security Secretary and self-professed dog
killer Kristi Noem — announced its intention to close all three of these
oversight offices and fire nearly all of their employees.
WHERE THINGS STAND: The case is proceeding.

LAWSUIT #12 — WORKER RIGHTS AROUND THE WORLD
DATE FILED: April 15, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To reverse the administration’s abrupt and unlawful cancellation of
critical international labor rights programs.
BACKGROUND: The Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) protects workers
and businesses in the United States from unfair competition by companies and
governments that violate workers’ rights to free association and collective
bargaining, that use forced labor or child labor, or that otherwise violate
labor rights to gain an unfair advantage in the global marketplace. In March,
the Trump regime terminated all of ILAB’s cooperative agreements, with the
so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) being run by Elon Musk
insisting that the administration would not spend funds Congress specifically
appropriated to combat unfair labor practices and to support workers’ rights
abroad.
WHERE THINGS STAND: The case is proceeding.

LAWSUIT #11 — CLIMATE CHANGE & ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
DATE FILED: April 14, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To restore key environmental data the Trump regime scrubbed from
various government websites.
BACKGROUND: Shortly after the Trump regime took over in January, it started
removing interactive pages related to climate change and environmental justice
from the taxpayer-funded websites of various agencies — including the Department
of Energy, the Department of Transportation, the Environmental Protection
Agency, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. We filed suit on behalf of
the Sierra Club, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and others.
WHERE THINGS STAND: We are waiting for the court to rule on the administration’s
motion for the case to be dismissed.

LAWSUIT #10 — GOVERNMENT TRANSPARENCY
DATE FILED: April 8, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To stop the Trump administration from keeping its decisions about
how to spend taxpayer dollars secret.
BACKGROUND: Trump put a man named Russell Vought — a primary architect of the
infamous Project 2025 manifesto — in charge of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). By law, OMB
is required to publicly post information about the funds allocated to each
federal agency. This is known as the Public Apportionments Database. But under
Vought’s leadership and in clear violation of the law, OMB took that database
offline and told Congress it would stop maintaining the database altogether. The
Public Apportionments Database is one of the most important tools we have for
monitoring how the government spends taxpayer money — including whether the
administration is flouting Congress’ constitutional authority over government
spending (the “power of the purse”).
WHERE THINGS STAND: In response to our lawsuit, the court ordered the
administration to restore the apportionments database while the case proceeds.
Although OMB has appealed, the information is now back online.***

LAWSUIT #9 — EDUCATION IN AMERICA
DATE FILED: April 4, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To challenge the Trump regime’s dismantling of the Institute of
Education Sciences.
BACKGROUND: The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) is a semi-independent
division within the Department of Education that conducts, supports, and
disseminates high-quality, evidence-based research about education in America.
In February, the Department of Education — run by the billionaire former
professional wrestling magnate Linda McMahon — began dismantling IES by
cancelling dozens of contracts for research studies and support services vital
to the agency’s functioning. In March, roughly 90% of IES employees were
notified that they would be terminated.
WHERE THINGS STAND: After we sued, the administration announced that it would
not cancel access to a key research database as it had planned to do. We are
waiting for the court to rule on the administration’s motion to dismiss the
case.

LAWSUIT #8 — TAXPAYER PRIVACY
DATE FILED: March 7, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To prevent the IRS from illegally sharing taxpayer data with DHS
and ICE.
BACKGROUND: Like other workers, undocumented workers are required to pay income
taxes. The Internal Revenue Service is legally required to treat their tax
records, like those of every other taxpayer, as private and confidential unless
disclosure is specifically allowed by law. No law permits the IRS to disclose
tax records for immigration enforcement purposes. But the Trump regime —
specifically the Department of Homeland Security along with Immigration and
Customs Enforcement — wants to access tax data to support its mass deportation
agenda. This is not just about the rights of undocumented workers: Congress
enacted taxpayer privacy laws in response to misuse of IRS records during the
presidency of Richard Nixon.
WHERE THINGS STAND: The judge agreed that sharing tax information for civil
immigration enforcement is not permissible. But, accepting the administration’s claim that it would share such
information only for use in criminal investigations, the judge denied our motion
for a preliminary injunction. We have appealed that ruling.

LAWSUIT #7 — CONSUMER PROTECTION
DATE FILED: February 13, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To stop the Trump administration from eliminating the Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau.
BACKGROUND: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was established after the
2008 financial crisis to keep everyday Americans from getting ripped off by Big
Banks. (Public Citizen played a major role in creating the CFPB.) Trump has
openly declared his intent to “totally eliminate” the CFPB, and he put one of
his top lieutenants — Russell Vought, a primary architect of the infamous Project 2025 manifesto — in charge of the Bureau. But the administration cannot lawfully
dismantle a federal agency created by statute. Any attempt to do so is in
defiance of the Constitution’s separation of powers. That hasn’t stopped Vought
from trying to fire the vast majority of CFPB employees, among other schemes to
shut the Bureau down.
WHERE THINGS STAND: The judge granted our motion for a preliminary injunction
blocking Vought from summarily firing CFPB staff and cancelling CFPB contracts
while the case proceeds. We are waiting for an appeals court ruling on the
administration’s appeal of that preliminary injunction. We recently withdrew as
co-counsel in this case to focus on Lawsuit #23 (above).***

LAWSUIT #6 — FOREIGN AID
DATE FILED: February 10, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To block Trump’s illegal and inhumane foreign aid freeze.
BACKGROUND: On his very first day back in office, Trump issued an executive
order directing agencies to freeze foreign assistance that supports humanitarian
efforts worldwide, including $4 billion that was supposed to be spent by the end
of September. The administration then froze, and later terminated, a large swath
of grants for foreign assistance work. Only about 1% of the federal budget —
just one penny out of every dollar — goes to foreign aid. With that relatively
modest expenditure, American aid helps millions and millions of people all
across the world who are facing disease, famine, illness, malnutrition, and
oppression.
WHERE THINGS STAND: In February, the court ordered the government to pay all the
grantees’ invoices for work they had already done. More recently — after a great
deal of back-and-forth in this case, some of which made national headlines — we
won a preliminary injunction in the lower court requiring the administration to
spend appropriated funds before September 30. The Supreme Court stepped in and
allowed the administration to impound (meaning not spend) about $4 billion. The
case is proceeding.***

LAWSUIT #5 — GOVERNMENT TRANSPARENCY
DATE FILED: February 7, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To keep “DOGE” out of the Department of Education
BACKGROUND: Operatives from the so-called Department of Government Efficiency
(DOGE) being run by Elon Musk infiltrated Department of Education databases that
include financial information of thousands of student-loan applicants and their
families.
WHERE THINGS STAND: After the court indicated that our clients could not show
harm needed to pursue the case, we closed the case voluntarily.

LAWSUIT #4 — GLOBAL HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
DATE FILED: February 6, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To preserve the U.S. Agency for International Development.
BACKGROUND: Shortly after returning to power, Trump tried to dissolve the U.S.
Agency for International Development (USAID) in clear disregard for the law and
the Constitution. Elon Musk later bragged that he had spent a weekend “feeding
USAID into the wood chipper.” Established by Congress in 1961 — when John F.
Kennedy was president — USAID provides life-saving food, medicine, and support
to much of the rest of the world. In January, though, Trump’s Secretary of
State, Marco Rubio, illegally ordered USAID workers to stop doing their jobs,
froze the agency’s funding, and prepared to lay off or fire nearly all
employees. With USAID in disarray, medical clinics, soup kitchens, refugee
assistance programs, and countless other critical projects across the globe
could not operate.
WHERE THINGS STAND: We initially won a temporary restraining order to stop Trump
from carrying out this global humanitarian nightmare. But the judge later lifted
it, allowing the regime to terminate the majority of USAID’s employees, and
granted the administration’s motion to dismiss the case. We have appealed that
ruling.

LAWSUIT #3 — PUBLIC HEALTH
DATE FILED: February 4, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To restore critical health information the Trump regime deleted
from government websites.
BACKGROUND: Based on a directive from the administration to scrub information
related to gender or “DEI” from government websites, essential public health
agencies — like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) — removed vital information that doctors and
researchers all across the country were using to treat patients, monitor
diseases, advance medical discoveries, and save lives. In some instances,
information that had been publicly available going back to the 1990s had
vanished.
WHERE THINGS STAND: We won. The court issued a final ruling in our favor,
requiring the agencies to restore the deleted information, which they have
done.***

LAWSUIT #2 — FINANCIAL PRIVACY
DATE FILED: February 3, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To limit “DOGE” infiltration of the Treasury Department.
BACKGROUND: The U.S. Treasury Department possesses sensitive personal and
financial information for millions and millions of Americans who send money to
or receive money from the federal government. Federal laws protect such
information from improper disclosure and misuse — including by barring
disclosure to individuals who lack a lawful and legitimate need for it. But
instead of protecting Americans’ private information as required by law, Scott
Bessent, Trump’s jillionaire Treasury Secretary, allowed operatives from the
so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) being run by Elon Musk
access to the data.
WHERE THINGS STAND: We are waiting for the court to rule on our motion for
summary judgment in the case.

LAWSUIT #1 — “DOGE” WAS ILLEGALLY STRUCTURED
DATE FILED: January 20, 2025
WHY WE SUED: To prevent “DOGE” from operating in violation of the Federal
Advisory Committee Act.
BACKGROUND: Within literally one minute of Trump taking office on January 20,
Public Citizen filed suit in federal court alleging that the so-called
Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) being run by Elon Musk was not in
compliance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act, a law that requires federal
advisory committees to consist of members with a fair balance of viewpoints, to
make meetings open to the public, and to make records and work product available
to the public.
WHERE THINGS STAND: With DOGE mutating into something other than an advisory
committee, we voluntarily closed this case.

We know that was a lot. So here’s a recap of the recap:

In 8 of these 23 cases — those marked with three asterisks (***) at the end of
the entry — we have either won the case outright or gotten a ruling, such as a
preliminary injunction, that impedes whatever bad thing the regime is trying to
do while the case proceeds.

That’s over a third of the lawsuits we have filed so far! And — in terms of what
we noted above about the pace at which these kinds of cases tend to make their
way through the courts — it’s still early. We fully expect more progress in some
of these suits.

Given the powerful forces and legal realities we’re up against, this is
something that everyone who supports Public Citizen can and should take pride
in.

Are these lawsuits alone enough to fully defeat Trump and MAGA? Of course not.
But are they a meaningful part of the pushback that is the only chance we have
to collectively save our country? No doubt about it.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Here are answers to some questions we’ve gotten about our lawsuits and other
ways Public Citizen is confronting the Trump regime.

HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHICH CASES TO FILE?

To file a lawsuit against the government, first we need to identify a law the
government has violated. Then we need to identify a person or organization who
was, or is very likely to be, harmed by that violation and is a good fit to
serve as the “plaintiff” (i.e. who we represent in the case). When we see
something wrong that the Trump regime is doing, that’s what we look at first:
Does that wrongful action violate the law, and who is directly impacted?

Both of those things can sometimes be straightforward and sometimes be tricky.
Many outrageous things aren’t actually illegal. And many people and
organizations are hesitant to go up against the Trump regime in court.

In addition, the courts have set a high bar for what someone needs to show to be
able to sue — what the courts refer to as “standing.” For example, we’re all
taxpayers, but being a taxpayer generally does not give someone the right to sue
in federal court, even when their money is being wasted — on the grounds that
the harm is too generalized.

Other factors also go into deciding which cases to file: How important is a
particular issue? Does the wrongful behavior involve an area of law in which
Public Citizen has expertise? How are courts likely to rule, given the signals
coming from the Supreme Court?

Lastly, there are real constraints on our budget and staffing. Public Citizen
never has, and never will, take money from Uncle Sam or Big Business — our
independence and integrity are not for sale. Our work is powered by everyday
folks chipping in if and when they can. Since Trump returned to office, we have
seen a marked uptick in donations. We can’t thank our supporters enough for
that. We also know they are not a bottomless reserve of cash. As a nonprofit
organization that has been fighting vastly better funded corporate and
government entities for over half a century, we prize our ability to budget and
operate efficiently and responsibly.

THE TRUMP REGIME IS DOING SO MANY OUTRAGEOUS AND DESTRUCTIVE THINGS, AND IT
SEEMS TO BE GETTING AWAY WITH SO MUCH. WHY CAN’T THE COURTS STOP MORE OF IT?

Many of the cruel and damaging things the administration does are,
unfortunately, legal. For example, Congress recently voted to strip Medicare
benefits from 15 million people. When the administration implements that
horrific policy, it will be legal — not right , but legal.

Another constraint is that with some of the unlawful things the administration
has done, nobody is legally in a position to sue. For example, the Constitution’s “emoluments clause” makes
it illegal for a president to accept foreign gifts without congressional
authorization. But when Trump takes a foreign gift, there may not be anyone who
has “standing” to sue him over it (meaning anyone who was directly harmed).

And, of course, even when we and others are able to file cases against the
regime in federal court, we don’t always prevail. There are a lot of reasons for
this, and every case is different, but one reason is that judges — whether
appointed by Democratic or Republican presidents — tend to give the federal
government the benefit of the doubt.

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER YOU FILE A LAWSUIT AGAINST THE ADMINISTRATION?

In normal times, lawsuits against the government tend to move slowly. We start
by filing a “complaint” in court. Sixty days later, the government files its
response. Then both sides file motions arguing why they should win and responses
to each other’s motions. After several more months, the judge issues a ruling.
Then the losing side might appeal. Some of our cases still move at that kind of
pace.

But in many of the cases in Trump’s second term, we are trying to stop things
that can’t be fixed after the fact or where the people we represent are
experiencing harm right now . As a result — much more frequently than ever before — we are asking judges to
rule on a very expedited basis, filing motions for “temporary restraining
orders” (TROs) or “preliminary injunctions.” If a judge grants such a motion,
the government must pause its unlawful activity while the case proceeds. To get
a preliminary injunction, we have to persuade the judge that (1) we are likely
to win in the end and (2) without immediate relief, the plaintiff will
experience harm that cannot be repaired later. Even so, the administration
appeals most preliminary injunctions.

It can all get quite jumbled, but, eventually, things do get sorted out. We do
our best to keep you apprised about key developments along the way. One thing to
keep in mind is that filing a lawsuit is the beginning, not the end — after we
announce a case, there is tons more work for our lawyers to do.

WHAT ABOUT THE SUPREME COURT?

Public Citizen has argued more than 60 cases before the Supreme Court, during
Democratic and Republican administrations. In addition, we file briefs and often
provide assistance to one side or the other in a significant number of other
cases that come before the Court.

The Supreme Court has issued many rulings we vigorously disagree with, including Trump v. United States , which provides broad criminal immunity to the president for almost any action
taken while serving in the Oval Office.

In this second Trump term, the Supreme Court has issued quite a few rulings on
its “shadow docket” (the name people have given to cases filed as emergency
motions asking the Court to act quickly, such as requests to put preliminary
injunctions on hold). Most of the shadow docket decisions this year have favored
the Trump administration. However, we won one of the very first shadow docket
decisions the Court issued on challenges to Trump actions.

Most cases that we file — or that anyone files — do not reach the Supreme Court.
The government has accepted defeat in some cases that we and others have won.
And the Court may decline to review some cases the administration asks it to
take up.

When we lose cases at the Supreme Court (or in any court), it hurts — because
the stakes are often so high. But that does not necessarily mean the fight is
over. We can go to Congress and try to get laws changed. We can push for a
future administration, or even the Trump administration itself, to reverse its
policies. These are not pathways that will give fast results, but we don’t quit
just because we got an adverse court ruling.

WHAT CAN BE DONE WHEN THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION DEFIES COURTS?

When the administration does not follow a court’s order, we go back to the
court, tell the judge what’s going on, and ask for a more specific order or a
decision holding the relevant government official in contempt of court. The
Trump regime has been more willing to mislead or slow-walk decisions than any we
have ever encountered. It sometimes takes multiple efforts to get the
administration to comply. While the regime has defied rulings on a few
occasions, it is, for the most part, following court orders.

WHY AREN’T WE SUING DONALD TRUMP, OR THIS OR THAT OFFICIAL IN HIS REGIME,
INDIVIDUALLY?

Longstanding legal principles make it impossible in many areas of law, and very
difficult in other areas of law, to hold individual government officials
personally accountable. Beyond that, the Supreme Court’s ruling last year in Trump v. United States conjured out of thin air a broad presidential immunity from criminal
prosecution.

Our lawsuits can do — and are doing — a lot to block bad policy or actions. They
are not, however, a way to impose personal accountability on Donald Trump.

WHY DOES IT SEEM LIKE TRUMP IS ABLE TO SUE WHOEVER HE WANTS WHENEVER HE WANTS?

Donald Trump is extremely litigious. For decades, Trump has used lawsuits — or the threat of lawsuits —
to bully business rivals; city, state, and national governments; media
companies; people he owes money to; people and groups who have been critical of
his loathsome and illegal behavior, and others.

What is perhaps most disturbing now is that Trump is continuing to use lawsuits
to bully adversaries. Not only is he weaponizing the Department of Justice, he
is bringing dubious lawsuits against universities and media companies. And in
case after case, those entities have agreed to settlements, including
significant monetary payments. But here’s the thing: They aren’t settling
because they think they would lose the lawsuits on the merits, they’re settling
because they have business before the government and are afraid of retaliation
by Trump.

That’s a very serious problem of authoritarianism, but it’s not a problem rooted
in the judicial system. When people fight back in court against Trump, they are
often able to win.

OUR PLAN FOR 2026

The American people are confronting an authoritarian onslaught with no precedent
in our nation’s history and no guarantee that our democracy will survive in any
meaningful form.

In pursuit of his dictatorial ambitions, Donald Trump and his regime are
prosecuting and seeking to imprison opponents. They are deploying thousands of
masked agents to abduct “immigrants” (and people they think look or sound like certain kinds of immigrants). They are putting heavily armed military
personnel on our nation’s streets to intimidate American citizens. They are in
effect extorting the media, major law firms, and universities. They are
conducting illegal military strikes that they seem hellbent on turning into a
reckless and unconstitutional war. They are forcing through unprecedented
congressional gerrymanders and actively undermining the voting rights of
millions of citizens.

The Trump regime has stripped healthcare from 17 million people to fund even more tax cuts for the ultra wealthy, blocked job-creating investments in renewable
energy and showered benefits on Big Oil, all but shuttered the agency designed
to protect consumers from financial ripoffs, gutted our public health
institutions, and buddied up to the Big Tech goliaths it once claimed to oppose.

Along the way, Trump and his family have cashed in on the presidency to add
billions to their personal wealth. Trump tore down an entire wing of the White
House — which had stood for almost 125 years — so that he can erect a gilded
ballroom sponsored by corporate titans eager to prostrate themselves before a
wannabe king.

In one particularly obnoxious and revealing example of Trump’s perception of
himself as some kind of “great leader,” he has affixed his name to the storied
Kennedy Center here in Washington, D.C. It’s the kind of thing you associate
with Big Brother from George Orwell’s classic dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four .

We could go on about the countless cruel, stupid, and destructive things that
the Trump regime — along with its adherents in other branches of government at
the national, state, and local levels — are doing, or attempting to do, as they
try to distort America into a grotesque version of what it could and should be.

Public Citizen is marshalling all our resources in a multifaceted,
interdisciplinary, “soup to nuts” strategy to prevent a worsening authoritarian
slide and to pave the way for a more democratic, just, and sustainable future.

CONFRONTING THE AUTHORITARIAN MOMENT

This is a scary time. It helps to acknowledge that. But it is also a time when
we can’t let our fears overwhelm us or lead us to withdraw, become isolated, or
give up. We must combine a strategic savvy with an empowering hopefulness.

As we meet the authoritarian challenge, these are some of our guiding
principles:

1. There is no single, definitive solution to defeat authoritarianism and defend
democracy. We need lots of approaches.

2. Authoritarians are driven and so too must we be persistent, relentless, and
resilient. We won’t win every battle, but even those we lose can serve to
further inform and inspire our broader resistance.

3. Like authoritarians before them, key figures in the Trump regime are
spreading fear, despair, and hopelessness with the intent to isolate, divide,
and disempower pro-democracy forces. Our job must be to bring people together —
figuratively and, as much as possible, literally — so that we feel our
collective strength and power.

4. Our anti-authoritarian, pro-democracy movement needs as many people — and as
many different kinds of people, from all sectors of society — as we can possibly
get.

5. Political leadership is vital, but politicians tend to follow more than lead.
It is up to us to make our political leaders stand strongly against Trump’s
authoritarianism.

6. Our values and policies are not just moral, they are also good politics,
supported by overwhelming majorities of Americans (even if it sometimes feels
otherwise).

7. Solidarity is perhaps our most important virtue in confronting
authoritarianism. That means aggressively supporting those targeted by the
regime, building unified responses to authoritarian impositions, and being fully
committed to caring for each other.

These understandings underpin our anti-authoritarian program, which aims to
wield the considerable strengths of Public Citizen in every way we can to defend
democracy.

TAKING THE TRUMP REGIME TO COURT AGAIN AND AGAIN

We are challenging a lawless regime that disregards the Constitution with a bevy
of lawsuits to uphold basic American values and the rule of law. Public Citizen
has unmatched expertise and skill in areas relating to constitutional and
administrative law. We are responding to the moment with an aggressive
litigation strategy.

To date, we have filed 23 lawsuits against the administration since Trump
returned to power (with several more imminent). These lawsuits have:

* Defeated an attempt by Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government
Efficiency (DOGE) to shutter the Job Corps program, which provides training
and housing for low-income youth.

* Forced the administration to make payments on foreign aid grants.

* Required the administration to repost health information it had wiped from
government websites.

* Forced the administration to repost an online database that reveals how
federal agencies will spend federal dollars.

* Saved the National Hunger Hotline from cancellation.

* Forced the administration to remove partisan language from the
“out-of-office” emails of furloughed federal employees.

* Blocked an administration effort to deny commercial driver’s licenses to
certain immigrants.

Others of our cases aim to preserve the jobs of the independent members of the
Consumer Product Safety Commission; protect the Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau; block wrongful sharing of immigrants’ personal information between the
IRS and the Department of Homeland Security; preserve the civil rights office at
the Department of Homeland Security; and more.

We have many more cases in the works, and we are prepared to litigate against
the just-beginning deregulatory blitz involving everything from environmental to
worker safety protections.

As we look to the coming year, we anticipate filing even more lawsuits than we
did in 2025.

Of course, exactly what we do will follow from the administration’s abuses, but
these are some of the areas we are monitoring for more litigation,
investigation, and advocacy:

Trump’s Grift
Trump’s shady business dealings in this term are even more egregious than in his
first term. We are exploring litigation opportunities around a range of schemes
that benefit Trump and his family financially, including a possible plan to
siphon off a share of government drug purchases.

Health Care
We are adding staff to monitor the chaos at the Department of Health and Human
Services under Robert F. Kennedy Jr. We anticipate even more health
policy-focused litigation in the coming year. We are tracking efforts to weaken
Medicare and shovel money to for-profit insurers, among other key issues.

Corporate Subsidies
The cronyism of the Trump regime and its readiness to deploy taxpayer dollars to
subsidize allied corporations knows no bounds. We are monitoring a major new
initiative to throw massive subsidies at coal plants, tech companies, and more.

Immigrant Rights
The regime’s rabid cruelty toward immigrants means that anti-immigrant animus is
informing all kinds of governmental activity — not just involving ICE, but also
at the IRS, the Department of Education, the Department of Labor, and more.
We’ll build on our existing docket of cases challenging the administration’s
illegal and unconstitutional actions targeting immigrants.

Open Government
We expect to file a significant number of lawsuits under the Freedom of
Information Act, forcing the disclosure of information that the regime is trying
— illegally — to keep secret.

In the almost two dozen cases we have filed so far, we have a strong record of
success at the district court level and a more mixed record on appeal. We know
we are going to lose cases we should win, and we know it would not be enough
even if we won every case.

At the same time, we know these cases make a difference. We are scoring
substantive wins that mitigate the authoritarian overreach perpetrated by the
administration, protecting rights, blocking deregulation, overcoming censorship,
and preserving agencies.

Along with the substantive wins, these lawsuits are inspiring hope — hope that
authoritarianism can be stopped, that fighting makes a difference, that
something can be done. In this way, our litigation is about more than the cases
themselves. It is about overcoming fear, isolation, and hopelessness — so that
people connect and mobilize and build the power we need to defeat Trump and
Trumpism.

MOBILIZING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

Some 7 million people took part in over 2,700 “No Kings” rallies in October.
Millions and millions more were there in spirit and participating remotely by
watching coverage on television or online. It was, remarkably, the largest
single day of protest in American history.

Public Citizen played a central role in making it happen, as one of the core “No
Kings” organizing groups. We did everything from identify and assist local
protest leaders to recruit co-sponsoring organizations (nearly 300!). We helped
develop the protest themes, drive turnout, manage logistics, and speak to the
national media.

This was just one of more than a dozen national days of action we have helped
lead, plan, and coordinate — including the two previous major nationwide
mobilizations against Trump’s authoritarianism, “Hands Off” (in April) and the
initial “No Kings” (in June).

We provided the organizational backbone for the July 17 “Good Trouble Lives On”
actions on the anniversary of Rep. John Lewis’s death. More than 100,000 people
participated in 1,600 events across the nation. We played similar roles for
worker-led Labor Day actions, nationwide protests against Texas’s extreme
gerrymandering, snap events around the country to support the demand for health
care and an end to illegal impoundments in the government shutdown fight, and
more.

In parallel, we are carrying out other organizing activities. These include a
“Disappeared in America” campaign around people kidnapped by Immigration and
Customs Enforcement, state-based efforts to win policies pushing back against
Trump’s authoritarianism, and the mobilization of health workers.

As we look toward the coming year, we are coordinating with allies on nascent
plans for new mobilizations that will demonstrate the growing power, energy, and
reach of the anti-authoritarian movement.

We are also organizing to energize and mobilize diverse sectors of society in
the fight against authoritarianism through all kinds of creative approaches. We
have invested in a new campus organizing effort, with the objectives of
massively increasing visible youth opposition to the Trump regime and of
pressing universities not to capitulate to Trump’s authoritarian demands. We are
coordinating with faith leaders, attorneys, veterans, farmers, and more to
display their communities’ opposition to Trump.

Does all this organizing and protesting matter? You bet it does.

We know that organization and mobilization are crucial to building and
expressing opposition to authoritarianism; to creating a sense of empowerment,
hope, and solidarity; to pressing elected officials and civil society leaders to
stand stronger against authoritarian encroachments.

With “No Kings” and other actions, the American people are showing that
resistance to the Trump regime is coming from every corner of this great
country. We are demonstrating our commitment to nonviolence, our patriotism, our
anger at the needless harm Trump is inflicting on the nation, our rejection of
his dictatorial ambitions, and — not least — our sense of humor.

The Trump regime wants to intimidate opponents and chill dissent. They want
people to be scared and isolated. With “No Kings” and other actions, we join
together to feel, and feed, our power — in overwhelming numbers.

Politicians pay attention. The nationwide demonstrations increasingly stiffen
their spines to resist Trump. Even the politicians who kiss up to Trump are
starting to have doubts, because they know the massive turnout and overwhelming
energy demonstrates the growing rejection among the American people of Trump and
the MAGA agenda.

Ultimately, mass mobilizations remind us of the power of solidarity and love. We
have great challenges ahead to defeat Trump’s authoritarianism. But — animated
by the spirit and energy of “No Kings” — we will prevail.

BUILDING MASSIVE NATIONWIDE COALITIONS

One of Public Citizen’s strengths is as a convening organization — we help bring
together and spearhead literally dozens of coalitions, with the understanding
that we build power when we join together. This has never been more important
than it is right now.

We are one of the co-founders of the Not Above the Law coalition with 150-plus
organizations. And we co-founded and house staff for the Declaration for
American Democracy (DFAD) coalition, which comprises over 260 organizations. The
Not Above the Law coalition brings together not only advocacy organizations and
grassroots activists, but policy experts, legal minds, faith organizations, and
others from across the political landscape to lead the charge against
authoritarianism. DFAD is helping lead efforts against Trump’s schemes to
subvert elections and is one of the key groups laying plans to win
transformative democracy legislation.

We have helped to bring groups together to stand in solidarity against the Trump
regime’s efforts to attack nonprofits that oppose authoritarianism. Under the
guise of attacking “domestic terrorism” and diversity, equity and inclusion
(DEI), the White House has issued presidential proclamations signaling plans to
strip away tax-exempt status, cancel government grants, and even criminally
prosecute organizations opposing it. In response, with other leading
organizations, we created a solidarity statement that over 3,700 discrete
organizations joined — demonstrating that nonprofit groups will stand together
against threats from the regime. It stands in notable contrast — unfortunately —
to the responses from some law firms, universities, and others.

Other examples of our coalition work include wide-ranging efforts to educate and
organize allies around deregulatory plans of the administration; to coordinate
among multiple tables opposing the tax and budget reconciliation bill; and to
challenge an administration proposal to enable churches to participate directly
in electoral politics.

As we move into the next year, and Trump’s authoritarianism intensifies, our
coalitions will be more important than ever. We will invest in and strengthen
these diverse coalitional efforts across and connecting multiple sectors. At a
time when no organization alone can hope to do enough and when isolation equals
vulnerability, these permanent and ad hoc coalitions and networks build civil
society power and enable coordination and solidarity.

EXPOSING AND CONFRONTING CORRUPTION

Impeccable investigative research is a Public Citizen calling card. And there
has never been more to investigate than there is now. Our research team is laser
focused on administration conflicts of interest and corruption, as well as the
soft treatment given to corporate wrongdoers. Our intent is to pierce Trump’s
populist facade.

We’ve published cutting-edge investigative reports showing (just to list a few
examples):

* An unprecedented pullback of regulatory and criminal enforcement against Big
Business. This includes more than 140 open investigations closed or
suspended; the termination of enforcement at the Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau; the announcement that anti-corruption laws will simply not
be enforced; what may be the first-ever corporate pardon; and more.

* More than 60 oil and gas executives, lobbyists, and lawyers with high
official government positions are driving the administration’s energy
policymaking.

* The far-reaching conflicts of interest of Attorney General Pam Bondi — who
worked previously at a lobby firm on behalf of gambling, private prison,
technology, and other corporate interests — with key issues before the
Department of Justice she now runs.

* The quackery and conflicted business interests of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who
now leads the Department of Health and Human Services, and other key health
officials in the Trump administration.

* The corporate giveaways in Trump’s tax and budget reconciliation bill,
including major handouts to dirty energy companies and Pentagon contractors.

* Many of the agencies slashed and burned by Elon Musk’s so-called Department
of Government Efficiency (DOGE) had been taking actions to hold assorted
companies owned by Musk accountable for violations of the law.

In November, we released a blockbuster report on the corporate and mega-wealthy
“donors” to Trump’s ballroom bonanza. That report showed, among other things,
that the 24 known corporate sponsors of the ballroom received a combined $279
billion in federal contracts in the previous five years. This was a front-page
story in The Washington Post and reverberated nationwide.

The importance of these investigative efforts is that they illustrate the lie of
the Trump administration (and authoritarians generally). Trump is not fighting
for everyday Americans. He is advancing an agenda of cronyism and corruption, in
service of himself and his super-rich donors.

AN AGENDA FOR EVERYDAY AMERICANS

Alongside our efforts to counter Trump’s authoritarianism, corruption, and
cronyism, Public Citizen is zooming forward with our traditional, pre-Trump
campaigns on issues like:

* Making medicines more affordable.

* Protecting workers from excessive heat and other dangerous conditions.

* Challenging oil and gas exports that are supercharging corporate profits but
skyrocketing consumers’ utility rates.

* Securing protections against creepy artificial intelligence technologies that
put teens at risk.

* Advocating to make billionaires and Big Business pay their fair share of
taxes.

* Ensuring that people injured by corporations can have their day in court.

* Keeping unsafe drugs off the market.

* Breaking up monopolistic corporations.

* Winning Medicare for All so that no American has to live without health
coverage.

* And much, much more.

We have detailed work plans in each one of these areas and dozens more.

Part of Trump’s appeal has been his claim that he understands people’s economic
pain and sense of disempowerment. His remedies are a fraud, but he is tapping
into a legitimate sense that the system is rigged against everyday Americans. We
need to provide a real and heartfelt agenda — policies, tone, and messaging —
that recognizes the pain and offers real solutions.

IN CONCLUSION

This is a moment with no parallel in American history. Not only are the stakes
as high as they could possibly be, but there is also no proven script to follow.
We hope this note helps you get a sense of our plans and our ongoing work, but
of course we can only do so much in a single (very long) email.

Please know that our team is working relentlessly across more projects, on more
issues, and in more coalitions than we can recount here. We face this moment
humbly but also with a sense of gravity and recognition that Public Citizen —
that’s the two of us, our staff, and over a million fellow Americans from all
walks of life and every corner of this country — can make, and is making, a real
difference.

What you and Public Citizen are doing together matters. What hundreds of other
organizations, big and small, are doing matters. What millions upon millions of
our fellow Americans are doing matters. We believe that to our core. We take
solace in that. And we draw inspiration from that. We hope you do, too.

Since this is the most critical time of the entire year for the online
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If you’ve donated to Public Citizen already, thank you. If a donation is not
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including by reading emails like this one.

For progress,

- Lisa Gilbert & Robert Weissman, Co-Presidents of Public Citizen


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