Throw another lawsuit on the pile generated by the downsizing of the federal bureaucracy engineered by President Donald Trump and his designated budget-cutter, Elon Musk.
Chicago is joining forces with a coalition of unions and a handful of other cities and counties in California, Texas, Maryland and Washington in filing a federal lawsuit that essentially seeks to preserve the jobs of federal employees targeted by the Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency.
Filed late Monday in federal district court in San Francisco, the 115-page lawsuit essentially argues that only Congress has the authority to “dismantle, downsize or otherwise transform” federal agencies.
It accuses the Trump administration of exceeding presidential authority and violating the separation of powers that gives Congress final authority over the federal budget and federal spending.
Corporation Counsel Mary Richardson-Lowry said Trump’s “attempt to dismantle essential government functions” represents an “unprecedented overreach” that is “already disrupting essential city services.”
A City Hall news release announcing the latest in an avalanche of legal challenges cites just a handful of examples.
They include claims that:
- Trump’s decision to abolish the National Weather Service would “strip Chicago of real-time weather data” it needs to respond to severe weather events and “safely plan large-scale outdoor events like Lollapalooza and the NASCAR” street race.
- FEMA cuts would “severely limit disaster relief” that Chicago relies on after state and federal disasters are declared, such as the massive flooding a few years ago that devastated the West Side.
- Decimating the Environmental Protection Agency would hamstring Chicago’s ability to remediate brownfield and Superfund locations, and other contaminated sites concentrated in Black and Hispanic communities.
- Cuts to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have “already threatened” the city’s ability to “track and respond to health crises by limiting or eliminating national data collection projects.” The cuts are “limiting access to federal infectious disease experts” the Chicago Department of Public Health needs to make “time-sensitive decisions” to allocate limited city resources.
“These actions threaten public safety and critical services our residents rely on,” Richardson-Lowry was quoted as saying. “This lawsuit aims to preserve federal protections and ensure Chicagoans continue to receive the support they need.”
Johnson has become increasingly strident in his opposition to Trump, in part because it plays well in heavily Democratic Chicago.
Former Mayors Rahm Emanuel and Lori Lightfoot used the same political calculus in doing constant battle with Trump during his first term in the White House.
Earlier this month, Johnson characterized as “terrorism” Trump’s threats to withhold billions in federal funding from sanctuary cities and cut off funding to school districts in Chicago and other major cities that adhere to diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
The City Hall news release announcing the lawsuit quoted Johnson as saying Trump’s plan to “gut the federal government threatens our way of life and would significantly impact our ability to keep residents and communities safe and healthy.”
“We cannot abide by that. With this lawsuit, we uphold our duty to come together and decisively call out the reckless dismantling of our government,” the mayor was quoted as saying.