North Carolina has sued Trump more than 20 times. Here’s how it’s going
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- Jeff Jackson’s office has sued Trump and his administration roughly 20 times since 2025.
- More than half of those lawsuits are ongoing with some paused by preliminary injunctions.
- Jackson says the challenges have protected more than $1.6 billion in taxpayer dollars
North Carolina has sued President Donald Trump and his administration roughly 20 times since the state’s attorney general, Jeff Jackson, took office in 2025.
Many of the lawsuits are jointly filed with other attorneys general — mostly Democrats — from across the country.
More than half of the lawsuits are ongoing, including ones targeting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Education for cutting state funding. Some of the cases are paused due to preliminary injunctions, which are issued to preserve the current circumstances of the case.
Jackson and his allies have won six preliminary injunctions through the legal challenges.
Courts in seven other cases resolved the cases by ruling against the Trump administration and in favor of Jackson, according to Jackson’s office.
One case, against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, was voluntarily dismissed. The lawsuit was filed by Jackson and other attorneys general, and challenged the department’s ability to prevent states from allowing Medicaid patients to receive covered services at specific health care centers, including abortion providers like Planned Parenthood.
The attorneys general dropped the lawsuit last month following a June 2025 Supreme Court decision which ruled that states can exclude specific providers from Medicaid coverage.
In a statement to The News & Observer, Jackson said he has protected more than $1.6 billion in state taxpayer money for education, health care and disaster relief through legal challenges.
“I believe in taking a nonpartisan approach to justice. That’s why I use an objective test for taking legal action: Did they break the law, did it harm our state, and can we prove it?” he said. “Every case we’ve filed against the federal government has met that nonpartisan standard, and that’s why our results have been exceptionally strong.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment from The News & Observer.
Ongoing litigation
Oral arguments were heard this month for a joint lawsuit challenging the legality of Trump’s latest round of tariffs. Jackson has said the tariffs could raise the price of goods for North Carolinians.
A different lawsuit brought by more than 20 attorneys general in October 2025 targets the EPA’s cancellation of a grant program for solar energy called Solar for All. A hearing is scheduled for May 8 in U.S. District Court.
Jackson has said the program, which would have given the state more than $150 million in solar grants, was intended to help low-income and rural communities save on energy costs. The program would have supported community initiatives to install rooftop solar panels to provide a reliable source of energy in case of a power outage.
The EPA in a memo told North Carolina and other grant recipients that the agency had no dedicated funding for the program, according to the N.C. Department of Justice.
The lawsuit claims that the EPA unlawfully canceled the program.
Another ongoing lawsuit filed April 3 by Jackson and other attorneys general challenges Trump’s executive order seeking to restrict mail-in voting across the country. The order would force the creation of a nationwide list of absentee voters who are approved to submit mail-in ballots and would require the U.S. Postal Service to deny any ballots from voters who are not on the list.
Jackson argued that the new restrictions could affect North Carolinians who serve in the military and could be deployed on short notice. Trump has repeatedly and without evidence claimed that mail-in voting creates widespread cheating and fraud.
Other ongoing lawsuits include challenges to:
- The EPA’s rollback of air pollution standards.
- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s $100,000 supplemental fee to employer-sponsored visas for teachers and health care workers in rural areas.
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau acting Director Russel Vought’s attempt to defund the bureau.
- The Department of Education’s termination of a $50 million grant to North Carolina public schools.
Six lawsuits are paused through preliminary injunctions, including ones targeting the federal Office of Management and Budget and Department of Health and Human Services for funding freezes and termination.
Cases that have been resolved
Judges in seven of the cases against the Trump administration ruled in favor of Jackson.
A federal judge in Massachusetts ruled in favor of Jackson and other attorneys general as part of a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the OMB.
The lawsuit challenged the departments’ refusal to fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program during the government shutdown in 2025. The agencies withheld $230 million in food assistance for more than 1 million North Carolinians, according to Jackson’s office.
Another lawsuit opposed the Department of Education’s cuts to more than $165 million in public education funds in North Carolina. Jackson and the other attorneys general won that case as well, restoring the funding.
Other resolved lawsuits included challenges to:
- The Federal Emergency Management Agency withholding $17 million in state funds for disaster relief
- The National Institutes of Health’s cutting $123 million in state funding to support medical and public health research
- FEMA’s cancellation of more than $200 million in North Carolina disaster preparedness grants
- The U.S. Department of Transportation cancelling $103 million in state funding for charging infrastructure for electric vehicles
- A U.S. Department of Energy policy that limited federal funds for state projects, including energy assistance programs
