Chicago is joining forces with eight other cities in challenging President Donald Trump’s decision to use tens of millions of dollars in federal anti-terrorism and public safety grants as leverage in his battle against what he calls “wokeness.”
Trump has vowed to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs in public schools and college admissions, and in corporate and governmental hiring.
In May, the U.S. Justice Department launched a federal civil rights investigation into Chicago’s hiring practices — days after Mayor Brandon Johnson boasted about the record number of African Americans he has hired for top city jobs.
The target of the new lawsuit filed Monday in federal court in Chicago is Trump’s decision to condition U.S. Department of Homeland Security grants on a city’s opposition to diversity, equity and inclusion in hiring and contracting.
The Trump administration’s conditions to tens of millions of dollars in federal funding would require Chicago and other cities to certify in advance that they do not have “programs that advance or promote DEI, DEIA, or discriminatory equity ideology.”
Those requirements are “arbitrary and capricious,” irrelevant to the purpose of the grants, and violate the separation of powers that puts Congress in control of federal spending, the lawsuit states.
The federal funds hanging in the balance are used to help cities “train first responders, modernize emergency options centers, build public alert systems and purchase hazmat suits” and other “life-saving equipment” used by bomb squads, according to city officials.
“Congress had already allocated the funds for these particular categories of grants. … So they can’t now attach these pre-approved grants to political conditions that only are applying to sanctuary cities,” Corporation Counsel Mary Richardson-Lowry told the Sun-Times. “We want to make sure that we have funds to do things like preparedness and terrorism activity response. These are critical dollars and we can’t have them used as a cudgel for domestic policy goals.”
After the lawsuit was filed, DHS agreed to extend until Nov. 30 the deadline for cities to respond to the Trump administration’s demands, Richardson-Lowry said.
Johnson said in a press release that he would not “stand by while the federal government weaponizes emergency funding” to attack diversity and “values” vital to Chicago.
“Ensuring that all Chicagoans have an opportunity to succeed is not discrimination. It’s just basic fairness,” Johnson said in the release. “We will fight to ensure our first responders have the tools they need, that our commitment to equity and inclusion remains strong and that we receive every federal dollar intended for public safety.”
Last spring, Chicago filed a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s freeze on counterterrorism funding. Boston, San Francisco, Seattle and Denver later joined the suit.
A month afterward, the Trump administration released $1.2 million in anti-terrorism funds to Chicago. Richardson-Lowry said then she believed the funds were unfrozen because of the heightened risk of terrorism on U.S. soil stemming from the United States’ bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Johnson has responded to the federal investigation of Chicago’s hiring practices by demanding that the Justice Department investigate Trump’s hiring practices, claiming the president is “using his power to divide people.”
“As my administration reflects the country, it reflects the city — his administration reflects the country club,” Johnson told reporters at the time. “That is the biggest difference between what we’re doing in Chicago and what is coming from the federal government.”