Attorney General Ellison sues to block Trump Administration from illegally conditioning federal funding on rigging elections

FEMA and DHS imposed illegal and unconstitutional requirements on counterterrorism and disaster funding that require states to share voter lists with DHS and change how they run elections

AG Ellison has already won two lawsuits to block illegal attempts to condition the same emergency funding on enforcing Trump’s political agenda

$22.5 million for Minnesota to fight terrorism, cyberattacks, and natural disasters at risk

July 23, 2026 (SAINT PAUL) — Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison joined a coalition of 24 attorneys general and two governors today in suing to stop the Trump administration’s continued efforts to use federal funds — specifically, billions of dollars Congress has appropriated for counterterrorism and disaster relief — to coerce states into complying with Trump’s ongoing efforts to rig Minnesota’s and America’s elections.

The lawsuit Attorney General Ellison and the coalition filed today challenges decisions by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to impose unlawful conditions on billions of dollars in federal funds that Congress appropriated for states to use in preparing for and responding to emergencies and natural disasters, including acts of terrorism. The conditions Attorney General Ellison and the coalition challenge in the lawsuit would require the states to change the way they conduct elections, including by transmitting lists of all registered voters to DHS, and to assist DHS in enforcing federal immigration law. They would also permit DHS to terminate any federal grant at any time and for any reason, which another court has already rejected. 

Attorney General Ellison and the coalition charge that the grant conditions are illegal and unconstitutional, in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act and the U.S. Constitution’s Spending Clause.

“Donald Trump and his administration show no shame in trying to rig America’s elections, including by putting Minnesotans’ lives at risk of disasters and terrorism,” Attorney General Ellison said. “We’ve beaten this back before, and because my job is to protect Minnesotans, I’m going to court again to beat it back again.”

Attorney General Ellison has already won two lawsuits blocking illegal attempts to coerce states into enforcing Trump’s political agenda

Attorney General Ellison has already prevailed in two similar lawsuits. On September 24, 2025, he and a coalition of states won their May 13, 2025 lawsuit against the Trump Administration’s attempt to illegally coerce states into sweeping immigration enforcement by threatening to withhold billions in federal funding for emergency preparedness and fighting terrorist attacks, mass shootings, wildfires, floods, cybersecurity threats, and more.

On September 29, 2025, just days after that victory, Attorney General Ellison and the coalition filed a second lawsuit against DHS’s subsequent attempt to unlawfully reallocate federal homeland security funding away from jurisdictions it viewed as insufficiently supportive of the President’s political agenda. On May 6, 2026, the coalition won that lawsuit as well, with the court writing:

Defendants’ wanton abuse of their role in federal grant administration is particularly troublesome given the fact that they have been entrusted with a most solemn duty: safeguarding our Nation and its citizens. While the intricacies of administrative law and the terms and conditions on federal grants may seem abstract to some, the funding at issue here supports vital counterterrorism and law enforcement programs. … To hold hostage funding for programs like these based solely on what appear to be Defendants’ political whims is unconscionable and, at least here, unlawful. (pp. 46-47)

Latest illegal Trump attempt to coerce states into rigging elections

Now, DHS and FEMA have established grant conditions for 2026 funding that again attempt to coerce Minnesota and the plaintiff states into complying with the administration’s policy priorities. The conditions in total affect billions of dollars in funding nationwide. For Minnesota, they put at risk more than $22.5 million for state and local governments to prevent, prepare for, and respond to terrorism, cyberattacks, and natural disasters. 

First, DHS and FEMA have again threatened to impose the same immigration conditions that they attempted to impose in 2025 on all federal grant programs. The conditions would require states to devote scarce law-enforcement resources to assisting DHS in enforcing federal immigration law. These are the same conditions the court found unlawful and blocked in September 2025.

Second, DHS and FEMA are threatening to withhold 20% of Minnesota’s and each state’s counterterrorism funding if Minnesota and the states do not change state election law to conform to Trump’s ongoing attempt to rig America’s elections. Specifically, the challenged funding conditions would require states to:

If states do not comply, DHS and FEMA will withhold at least 20% of each state’s HSGP funding.

Attorney General Ellison and the coalition assert that these requirements would force Minnesota and the states to abandon years of work and millions of dollars of investments in their elections systems, all to obtain unrelated funding that Congress earmarked for the prevention of terrorist attacks.

Finally, the challenged funding conditions unlawfully claim effectively unfettered power to terminate these grants on a whim. The agencies are attempting to add a condition that would allow FEMA to terminate any grant program for any reason. However, just last week, on July 17, 2026, Attorney General Ellison prevailed in yet another federal lawsuit when a court blocked the Trump administration’s attempts to interpret an existing regulation to have the same effect. The court issued a declaratory judgment that that regulation and others do not independently authorize the Trump Administration to terminate funding based on agency priorities that were only identified after a grant was awarded. 

Joining Attorney General Ellison in filing the lawsuit are attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin, as well as the governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania.