State attorneys general won 40 of 51 resolved lawsuits against Trump in his first year back

In year one of Trump's second term, Democratic state attorneys general filed 71 lawsuits against the administration and won 43 of the 53 cases that reached resolution by January 2026, an 81% win rate, according to the Progressive State Leaders Committee tracker. That success rate significantly exceeded the roughly 60% win rate GOP states achieved suing the Obama administration.

New York AG Letitia James secured a nationwide preliminary injunction in February 2025 blocking NIH indirect cost cuts, restoring funding for cancer research, HIV treatment studies, and public health programs at universities across the country. She also won a court order requiring the federal government to use SNAP contingency funds during a government shutdown standoff. James anchored several of the coalition's highest-profile early wins.

California AG Rob Bonta reported at least $168 billion in federal funding restored through California litigation alone in the first six months, including a January 2025 lawsuit challenging the administration's broad federal funding freeze. Chief Judge John McConnell Jr. of the District of Rhode Island ruled that freeze unconstitutional, finding the White House had put itself above Congress by refusing to spend funds Congress had appropriated.

The Spending Clause (Article I, Section 8) and the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 require the executive branch to spend funds Congress appropriates. Courts repeatedly invoked these provisions to block the administration, giving states a constitutional hook that didn't depend on proving specific harm to each individual plaintiff. The Impoundment Control Act was passed precisely because of Nixon-era attempts to impound congressional appropriations.

The 1946 Administrative Procedure Act gave states a parallel procedural weapon. Courts struck down several Trump administration funding actions not on constitutional grounds but because agencies failed to follow notice-and-comment rulemaking. The APA's arbitrary-and-capricious standard is a concrete procedural requirement that agencies violated when they rapidly changed grant terms, cut funding programs, and restructured operations without prior public notice.

During Trump's first term, Democratic AGs filed 138 multistate lawsuits across four years, nearly double the 78 filed against Obama across eight years. The second-term coalition entered year one with institutional knowledge, established legal research, and a clear record of wins to build on. The AG coalition's 81% win rate in year one reflects trial and appellate courts — not the final word, as Supreme Court review remains possible.

The coalition is institutionally organized. Democratic AGs coordinate through regular calls and share legal research to avoid duplicating work. New York, California, and Massachusetts typically anchor the coalitions and recruit additional state signatories. A single lawsuit can carry 20 or more states as co-plaintiffs, strengthening standing arguments and increasing political visibility simultaneously.

Republican AGs pioneered multistate AG coordination against the Obama administration, demonstrating that states could effectively challenge federal executive actions in court. Democratic AGs adopted and expanded that playbook in Trump's first term and refined it further by year two. The strategy now treats speed of filing and coalition size as primary tools for checking executive action between elections.