The Legislature has agreed to add $4 million to the state Attorney General’s litigation budget — essentially doubling it over the next two years — to help support the state’s court battle against President Donald Trump’s policies.
State Attorney General Anne Lopez’s department has joined 27 federal lawsuits challenging the Trump administration’s moves to access personal data through programs like Medicaid, redefine birthright citizenship and restrict medical research funding.
In December, Gov. Josh Green told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that he planned to increase the size of Lopez’s litigation budget to accommodate the additional Trump-related cases.
Toni E. Schwartz, public information officer for the state Attorney General’s department, said officials started this year with a $2 million balance in the litigation fund, but an additional $3 million was allocated to bring the budget to $5 million for fiscal year 2026 and an additional $1 million brought the budget to $3 million in fiscal year 2027.
Schwartz said that money can be used for all types of litigation and is not exclusive to litigation involving the federal government.
Still, the $4 million gain is more than $3 million greater than the $940,000 the Legislature allocated as an increase for fiscal years 2024 and 2025 combined, according to Star-Advertiser research.
Sen. Brenton Awa (R, Kaneohe-Laie-Mokuleia) said the increase wasn’t surprising given Green’s priorities, calling it “just standard practice,” in a phone interview with the Star-Advertiser.
“There are many people here in Hawaii who would probably say ‘we want our state to fight against the administration on our behalf,’” Awa said, although some Republicans like him don’t “see the need to fight across the board as much as they have been,” when it comes to joining 27 lawsuits.
Hawaii needs to join other states’ attorneys general challenging Trump in court “to make sure that we are enforcing the rule of law,” Lopez told the state Senate Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs Committee during a briefing last week.
Sen. Karl Rhoads (D, Nuuanu-Downtown-Iwilei), who chairs the committee, said in a statement that “the Trump Administration has taken many actions of questionable legality, many of which negatively affect Hawaii residents.”
Lopez said that since Jan. 20 when Trump took office, Democratic attorneys general have been meeting regularly to review executive orders and policy changes issued by the Trump administration, discussing whether the states have legal standing or have suffered any harm that would justify litigation.
While many Democratic officials have argued that the lawsuits are necessary to protect state interests and uphold federal law, some Republican lawmakers like Awa have expressed concern over how taxpayer resources are being used.
Awa, a member of the Senate Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs Committee, questioned the rationale for Hawaii joining a lawsuit to challenge the Department of Health and Human Services’ termination of $11 billion in public health funding related to COVID-19. Awa said the state Department of Health had seven grants terminated, with more than $89 million in unspent funds.
“In certain cases, if the money — like the Health Department — if they’re not using it or misusing it, should we keep taking that money?” Awa asked during the briefing. “At the end of the day, it’s our taxpayer dollars.”
Lopez said in response to Awa,“I would disagree that money is being misspent a lot of times, particularly with issues like Medicaid and SNAP benefits,” Lopez said. “The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services is extremely diligent the way that those funds are used. Every organization that uses any of those monies has to follow very stringent requirements.”
Lopez said in some cases that delays in spending stem from staffing or service limitations rather than mismanagement.
“Sometimes the money hasn’t been used because we’ve been unable to find the people or the services that we need to use it,” Lopez said. “With the Department of Health, a key area has been the area of epidemiology and laboratories. It’s not that they haven’t wanted to use the money, but building that process is not an easy process to build.”
Broad pushback
Dave Day, special assistant to Lopez, said the 27 separate cases can be grouped into four main categories — immigration (five cases), funding freezes and grant terminations (10), federal agency dismantling and workforce reductions (seven) and protecting elections and public health and safety (five).
They push back at a broad range of Trump administration actions — like moves to terminate diversity, equity and inclusion related grants, a $6 billion freeze on education funding and to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education as well as eliminating the provision of medically necessary health care to transgender people under age 19.
Most of the lawsuits are pending, with hearings happening across the country as the cases make their way through the courts — some receiving preliminary injunctions and others facing federal appeals, according to the Hawaii Attorney General’s Office.
Day said that one lawsuit important to the well-being of Hawaii was New York, et al. v. Trump (case no. 1:25-cv-39) challenging The Office of Management and Budget’s near-total freeze on obligation and disbursement of federal grants, putting key programs for Lahaina wildfire relief at risk on March 12.
Day quoted the case directly saying “‘for Hawaii, this means the imminent cessation of case management services for victims of the 2023 Maui wildfires, including the wildfire-initiated urban conflagration that caused extreme damage to the historic town of Lahaina, killed over 100 people and displaced thousands of Hawaii residents from their homes.’”
At the time, Hawaii had waited nearly 30 days for reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, despite rules that limit the state to keeping no more than three business days’ worth of disaster relief funds on hand. If FEMA didn’t reimburse Hawaii by March 31, the state said it would have to shut down key recovery programs, including personalized disaster recovery planning and survivor support services.
“It was only through the issuance of an injunction and the motion to enforce — invalidating FEMA’s practice of manual review process and noting that it was in fact a freeze, that these funds began to flow again,” Day said.
Slew of active cases
Hawaii’s solicitor general, Kaliko‘onalani D. Fernandes, said the first lawsuit that Hawaii joined was on Jan. 21, and was the New Jersey, et al. v. Trump (case no. 1:25‑cv‑10139), concerning birthright citizenship.
“Within hours of taking office the president issued an executive order, entitled, ‘Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship.’ It declares that birthright citizenship does not extend to anyone born to a mother who is unlawfully present or who is lawfully present on a temporary basis and a father is neither a citizen nor lawful permanent resident,” she said, referring to the executive order issued Jan. 20 that applies to children born after Feb. 19.
“We sued the very next day in a coalition of 20 states and jurisdictions arguing, among other things, that this executive order blatantly violates the 14th amendment citizenship clause, which states that ‘all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state where they reside,” Fernandes said.
U.S. District Judge Leo T. Sorokin of Massachusetts issued a nationwide preliminary injunction in February, blocking enforcement of the executive order across all 50 states. The order remains blocked, but its status still could change depending on the ruling of ongoing appeals.
Hawaii took a leading role alongside a few other states on March 13, in regard to the New York, et al. v. McMahon (case 1:25-cv-10601) lawsuit, challenging the dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education and the elimination of nearly half its workforce.
“The president made it clear very early on that he wanted to close the U.S. Department of Education. He called it a ‘big con job’ and declared that he would like to close it immediately — something he cannot do lawfully without Congress,” Fernandes said.
On March 11, the DOE announced a reduction in force affecting nearly 50% of the department’s workforce.
U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement, “today’s reduction in force reflects the Department of Education’s commitment to efficiency, accountability, and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents, and teachers.”
Hawaii’s March 13 lawsuit followed the reduction in DOE force, arguing “that the administration’s actions, including the termination of nearly half its staff, would interfere with the department’s ability to perform the functions it is mandated to do,” Fernandes said. “The department had eliminated personnel critical to its ability to meet its statutory obligations across numerous programs that includes student aid for college students, administering funding for K-through-12 education, services for students with disabilities civil rights enforcement and vocational training, among other areas.”
The states were granted an injunction, preventing immediate dismantling of the Department of Education.
But the U.S. Supreme Court stayed the injunction as of July 14, meaning the immediate effects are paused.
The case, like most others joined by Hawaii since Trump took office, remains active and is pending a final ruling by the Supreme Court or lower courts.
Source: The Garden Island