Multistate lawsuit challenges ‘gender conditions’ on HHS funding

Published 5:31 am Wednesday, January 14, 2026

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha joined 11 other states’ attorneys general, including Oregon’s Dan Rayfield on Tuesday in filing suit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for what the multistate coalition argues is unlawful discrimination against transgender people via new strictures placed on federal grant funding.

“This is yet another distraction from an Administration that would rather target marginalized groups than do anything to help the American people,” Neronha said in a statement. “It hasn’t worked before and it won’t work here.”

The suit was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island and targets what it dubs as HHS’ “Gender Conditions” — a set of certification and compliance rules attached to federal grants in a way that forces recipients to honor President Donald Trump’s January 2025 executive order which limits the federal definition of sex to a strictly binary model.

“Under the leadership of Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., HHS has wasted no time in illegally implementing the EO’s [Executive Order’s] discriminatory directives,” the lawsuit reads.

Across 11 of the complaint’s 61 pages, the lawsuit outlines how the U.S. Department of Justice and HHS have gradually installed Trump’s directive into federal governance, leading to threats of canceled or clawed-back funding, as well as possible liability under the False Claims Act.

The most recent example cited by the AGs is the Dec. 29 awarding of Rural Health Transformation Program grants, which they argue require states “to certify compliance with the Gender Conditions as a condition of drawing down the funds.”

“Plaintiff States accordingly fear that agreeing to the Gender Conditions, even with reservations, will expose them to heightened legal risks and place billions of dollars of funding provided by Congress for the Rural Health Transformation program at risk,” the suit reads.

Co-leading the lawsuit with Neronha are California’s Rob Bonta, New York’s Letitia James, and Oregon’s Dan Rayfield. The AGs from Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Vermont and Washington also joined.

Each of these states stands to lose something from the HHS conditions. According to Tuesday’s filing:

“The Gender Conditions jeopardize a vast amount of funding used by Plaintiff States to support vital health centers and health education programs; scientific research and medical education in universities; and community programs focused on improving infectious disease prevention and treatment, immunization, and maternal and infant health.

“Congress has funded these programs without any requirement to exclude entities that recognize transgender, nonbinary, intersex, or gender diverse individuals.”

The attorneys general argue that the feds are using Title IX — the civil rights law meant to prevent sex-based discrimination — as the mechanism to enforce Trump’s executive order. The Trump administration has employed Title IX in related mandates, like Executive Order 14201, which strives to keep transgender men out of women’s athletics.

But the AGs argue that HHS does not have the “authority to reinterpret Title IX’s requirements via a funding condition,” and by maneuvering to do so, the agency “violates the President’s Article II obligation to take care that the laws be faithfully executed and usurps the legislative authority conferred by the Constitution exclusively on Congress.”

The AGs also argue that the definitions in Trump’s first gender-defining EO “are unscientific, unworkable, and inconsistent with other ‘official’ HHS guidance purporting to define the same terms, including HHS’s Feb. 19 announcement.”

That means the plaintiff states are “unable to determine what the Gender Conditions require of them as grant recipients that is distinct from pre-existing requirements under Title IX,” the suit reads. “This uncertainty puts Plaintiff States at risk of — unintentionally — violating the Gender Conditions and being subject to loss of funding and threats of federal enforcement actions.”

The coalition wants the court to declare the grant conditions and policies unlawful, and block HHS from enforcing the restrictions.

Like many Trump-related lawsuits, the AGs argue that Kennedy and his office have exceeded their statutorily granted powers, violating the Administrative Procedure Act. Because the gender conditions “reverse previous policies — in effect across multiple federal agencies and administrations, including the first Trump administration” and broadly affect existing antidiscrimination law, the suit claims that invoking the EO does not meet the sufficient criteria for such sweeping changes.

The complaint notes that multiple federal courts, including Rhode Island’s, have blocked comparable restrictions in recent months, such as the preliminary injunction granted in October 2025 in the case, Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence v. Kennedy.

When asked for comment Tuesday via email, HHS’ press office said the agency does not comment on litigation.

The case has been tentatively assigned to U.S. District Judge Melissa R. DuBose and Magistrate Judge Patricia A. Sullivan.

This lawsuit is the 47th Neronha has co-led or joined against the Trump administration since the president began his second tenure in office last January. It is also the first lawsuit contra Trump that Neronha has joined in 2026. The last lawsuit he joined was filed two days before Christmas and also concerned federal limits on gender-affirming care and medicine for young people.

This story was originally produced by Rhode Island Current, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Oregon Capital Chronicle, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.