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A coalition of California and other states sued the Trump administration on Monday to block widespread cuts to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, claiming that they were unconstitutional and put Americans at risk.
The lawsuit specifically challenges Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s March 27 directive, laying off 10,000 full-time employees, combining 28 divisions into 15 and closing five of the 10 regional offices, including one in San Francisco. The move claims it has disrupted the array of critical services, including closing the country’s lab monitoring lab for the current measles outbreak.
Litigation – brought by California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta and the Attorney General of 18 other states and the District of Columbia have alleged that the cuts are “arbitrary and whimsical,” unconstitutional, violating the Administrative Procedure Act, and “over and beyond the presidential power,” by robbing Congressional powers by providing appropriate funding for certain government services “beyond the presidential power,” Bonta’s office said.
“The Trump administration has no power to neutralize a department created by Congress, and it cannot refuse Congress to use the funds allocated to that department,” Bonta said in a statement. “That’s why my fellow Attorney General and I are taking the Trump administration to court. HHS is under attack and we don’t support it.”
The lawsuit asks the court to declare the cuts illegal, block or reverse their implementation and cancel the shooting, Bonta’s office said. This was one of two lawsuits Bonta’s office filed against the Trump administration on Monday. This is the second new federal restrictions on wind energy.
A health and welfare spokesperson defended the agency’s actions on Monday, saying it was implemented in accordance with law and other protections of federal employees.
Health and Welfare Welfare previously characterized the change as a “dramatic reconstruction” of an agency in line with President Trump’s executive order in February. This has appointed advisor Elon Musk’s efficiency to “eliminate waste, bloating, and isolating” in the federal workforce, including mass fires.
Health and Human Services said the overhaul would also help focus on Kennedy’s priorities: “end the American chronic disease epidemic by focusing on safe and healthy foods, clean water and eliminating environmental toxins.”
“We are not only reducing bureaucratic sprawl, we are re-aligning our organization with core missions and new priorities to reverse the chronic disease epidemic,” Kennedy said in a statement. “This department does even more at a lower cost for taxpayers.”
Kennedy said that “businesses like HHS will be wasted and inefficient” and that “even if most of our staff are dedicated and capable civil servants,” and that overhauls “is advantageous for both taxpayers and those whom HHS serve.”
“Our goal is to make America healthy again,” he said.
Kennedy was confirmed as a health and welfare secretary by the Senate in February. Amid acute criticism from Democrats, he denounced the politically renowned Kennedy eccentric as an anti-Baksin conspiracy theorist who has spread dangerous, unscientific beliefs about hosts of health issues, such as the virus, over the years.
Kennedy continues to raise alarms, including handling the country’s measles outbreak, which has swept most of the southwest, where vaccination rates have been delayed in recent months.
Rather than pushing for a larger vaccination that has proven to be highly effective and safe, Kennedy instructed his department to look for new treatment options. Given the effectiveness of the measles vaccine, scientists have mitigated the movement as a stupid, ineffective resource shift in the face of a serious and deadly threat.
In their lawsuit, the state will refer to Kennedy’s “history of spinning conspiracy theories” and defend the demolition of health and human services, Bonta’s office said. Already, his orders have curbed agencies, prevented programs such as Head Start, and caused the halt of the lab’s closed lab, which will cease production of N95 masks and halt the lab’s closure of infectious diseases such as measles, Bonta’s office said.
The Associated Press reports that cuts under Kennedy appear to have eliminated more than 12 data collection programs tracking deaths and illnesses across the country.
Congress passed various laws in 2024 that provided a $1.8 trillion budget to health and human services and outlined its mission, Bonta’s office said.
The division has lost about 20,000 of its 82,000 employees since the start of the Trump administration, including starting from previous acquisitions, Bonta’s office said.
The state alleges in their lawsuit that health and human services were in turmoil after the termination notice occurred on April 1.
“Across the HHS, critical offices were unable to perform statutory functions. No one answered the phone. The factory went into closed mode, experiments were abandoned, training was cancelled, site visits were postponed, application portals were closed, laboratories stopped testing for infectious diseases such as hepatitis, and the state was stopped short.
The Attorney General of Bonta in the lawsuit will be Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Connecticut, Columbia, Hawaii, Columbia, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, New York, Oregon, Road Island, Vermont, Washington, Washington, and Washington.
The lawsuit was the 17th filed by Bonta’s office against the Trump administration. The 18th came as well Monday as California joined the Columbia district, suing the administration over the suspension of federal approval of offshore and onshore wind energy projects.
Based on similar debates about an administration that exceeds its powers that contradict Congressional decisions on federal spending, California has separately sued the Trump administration over the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Plans to cut billions of federal public health grants aimed at increasing states’ resilience to infectious diseases.
California leaders have also expressed concern about the planned closure of the San Francisco Department of Health and Human Services. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), said the move was “myopic” and “has a detrimental effect on our public health response capabilities,” and she was “examine all possible paths to fight back.”
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