A guide to the federal government’s numerous legal fights with NY

President Donald Trump has long been in the crosshairs of various New York lawsuits and investigations. But now that he’s back in office, he has been able to turn the tables on the state with federal lawsuits and investigations of his own. Four months into his second term, the Trump administration has already sued the state more than once and launched several probes into state policy as part of its retaliatory actions against blue states with liberal policies.

Here’s a list of some of the most high-profile legal fights that the Trump administration has picked with New York.

DMV Green Light Law lawsuit 

The U.S. Department of Justice made a big show out of announcing that it is suing New York, the Department of Motor Vehicles and Gov. Kathy Hochul over a 2019 law that permits undocumented immigrants to get drivers licenses. A major part of the law, one considered part of the state’s sanctuary policies, prevents federal authorities like Immigration and Customs Enforcement from accessing DMV data most of the time. It’s a bid to protect the undocumented immigrants who disclosed their status in order to legally drive. The Trump administration took aim at the law during his first term as well, but the lawsuit now is an escalation. 

Less than a month into Trump’s new term, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi held a press conference during which she said the DOJ had “filed charges” against Hochul, causing some initial confusion and agita. The department had in fact brought a civil lawsuit against the various parties, including the governor, but no criminal charges. The suit, filed in the Southern District of New York, argues that the Green Light Law violates the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause. It is currently ongoing.

Congestion pricing lawsuit

Not long after suing the DOJ sued New York over immigrant protections, the U.S. Department of Transportation declared congestion pricing to be dead. New York, naturally, did not listen and continued the tolling program in defiance of the so-far toothless decree from the federal government. In this instance, the Trump administration technically did not sue New York and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority – it simply acted. So the MTA sued instead in order to stop the attempted unilateral action. (We’re counting this because the federal government decided to keep with its purported dedication to efficiency and skipped the whole “suing” part altogether.) 

Federal courts have so far consistently ruled in favor of the MTA and keeping congestion pricing in place. Most recently, a judge issued a temporary restraining order to prevent the DOT from cutting MTA funding in retaliation for the continued tolling of drivers in Manhattan. That decision came after the feds blinked more than once, repeatedly extending the deadline for the MTA to comply with their order to shut down congestion pricing.

Native American mascot Education Department investigation

U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon made a trip to Long Island last week in order to denounce New York state regulations banning Native American mascots and team names in public schools. The state Board of Regents approved the rule change two years ago, but a handful of schools – including Massapequa High School – have defied the state and fought to The issue caught Trump’s attention, and the U.S. Department of Education (which Trump actively wants to dismantle) opened a civil rights investigation into New York policy banning Native American mascots. McMahon visited Massapequa to announce that her department has concluded that the Board of Regents violated the school district’s civil rights and the ban on Native American mascots, which could be considered offensive caricatures, is discriminatory against Native Americans. She demanded that the Board of Regents apologize to Massapequa High School and rescind the policy. If not, McMahon threatened to refer the case to the DOJ.

Rochester sanctuary city lawsuit

The DOJ went after Rochester with a lawsuit over the Western New York city’s sanctuary policies, much like how it sued the state over the Green Light Law. Why Rochester? Because local lawmakers publicly denounced recent cooperation between police in the city and federal immigration authorities. In March, local law enforcement in Rochester assisted Border Patrol agents at a traffic stop, which officials later said violated city law preventing such collaboration. So the Trump administration sued the city in an attempt to get those city laws restricting collaboration thrown out. That case is ongoing, although a federal judge in California previously ruled that the federal government could not withhold funds to places with sanctuary laws.

Investigating the CDPAP transition

The Trump administration has heeded the calls of Republican lawmakers in the state to investigate New York’s troubled Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program transition, according to new reporting from the New York Post. Until recently, some 700 organizations known as fiscal intermediaries helped to administer the popular Medicaid home care program by handling payroll for workers that consumers could choose themselves. Hochul charged that the program, which allows friends and family members to serve as personal home care assistants, was rife with fraud and enacted a law to transition the program to a single fiscal intermediary over the course of just a few months. The process has hardly gone smoothly, and home care advocates are still attempting to reverse some of the changes that they say have negatively impacted disabled New Yorkers and workers alike. 

Advocates are particularly concerned with the company the state chose to administer the program, Public Partnerships LLC. Along with the fiscal intermediaries now forbidden from operating in New York, advocates have accused the state of rigging the procurement process to ensure PPL got the contract and of having decided on the company before bidding even started. According to the Post, federal investigators have been interviewing PPL employees and others involved with the transition for months as part of an investigation into the bid-ridding allegations and other issues with the company.