SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California has filed more than 60 lawsuits against the federal government since Donald Trump began his second term last January — roughly one a week. The state has also signed on to another 60 legal complaints as a friend of the court. But what are all these lawsuits about?

Here is a breakdown. Some of the lawsuits touched on more than one issue.

Federal funding

By far the largest category of lawsuits relates to funding. The state has filed 31 actions against the Trump administration, seeking funds meant for programs in California and other states that were withheld for a variety of political and budgetary reasons.

California’s Democratic leadership spent more than $30 million fighting the federal government in court over the past year. But Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office said in a statement to The Sacramento Bee that the legal expenses more than paid for themselves when the state won back $188 billion in money that Congress had appropriated, but the administration was withholding.

Among the funding areas targeted in the lawsuit were grants for public safety and law enforcement, and money for early childhood education, health care programs, education, environment, disaster preparedness and medical research.

Environment and Energy

Ten of the lawsuits filed between late January, when Trump was inaugurated for his second term, and March 11, 2026, involved policy issues or funding related to energy and the environment. One targets the president’s declaration of a national energy emergency, issued on his first day in office last year. The declaration specifically mentioned the West Coast among places to be targeted for increased extraction, refining and development of crude oil, natural gas, uranium, coal, biofuels, hydroelectric power and related sources of energy. It does not include solar or wind power in its definition of energy. The state’s lawsuit argued that the policy was unlawful because there was no emergency shortage of energy, among other reasons.

Health research and medical care

California filed or joined with other states on eight lawsuits relating to health care and research. One such case challenged the decision by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to lay off 10,000 employees and close several offices, including one in San Francisco.

Gender identity

The state filed seven lawsuits involving gender issues. After Trump’s Justice Department asked California school districts to promise not to include transgender students on sports teams consistent with their identities, the state filed a pre-emptive challenge to stop the federal government from enforcing the request or demanding that the state ignore its laws requiring equal access to sports teams for transgender students. The state also sued over a rule issued by the Department of Health and Human Services that among other actions excluded gender-affirming care from coverage under the federal Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

Education

In seven lawsuits that touched on issues related to education, the state argued for funding as well as such issues as gender-related privacy for students. In a lawsuit filed earlier this month, California and Massachusetts led a coalition of states challenging the White House’s demand for increased data from colleges on the race, ethnicity, gender and other characteristics of students offered admission.

Immigration

Another set of seven lawsuits addresses policies, procedures and funding issues related to immigration. The day after Trump’s inauguration, California joined several states in filing a lawsuit against the new president’s executive order aiming to deny citizenship to babies born in the United States if neither of their parents had permanent legal status. Other lawsuits aimed to win back funding withheld because of the state’s so-called sanctuary policies protecting undocumented immigrants, or protect services for the estimated 2.3 million unauthorized immigrants in the state.

Poverty

Another group of seven lawsuits touched on issues related to poverty along with topics such as funding. One argued that a move to exclude unauthorized immigrants from certain programs involving early childhood education, health care, aid for food banks and other assistance was contrary to the law and could harm funding and access to the programs for other participants as well. Another, filed with several states, aimed to stop restrictions that could have prevented some lawful permanent residents from accessing the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps.

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