Bonta says California's lawsuits against Trump protected $200 billion in funding. What did they cost?

Sharon Bernstein, The Sacramento Bee on Aug 4, 2026

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California’s legal campaign against the Trump administration has preserved more than $200 billion in threatened federal funding, Attorney General Rob Bonta said Tuesday. During the first 18 months of President Donald Trump’s second term, the state filed 82 lawsuits and submitted 120 friend-of-the-court briefs in other cases.

The actions ranged from lawsuits to claw back funds frozen by the Republican administration over political differences with the state’s Democratic leaders to efforts to defend California’s environmental laws. Cases challenged President Donald Trump’s orders to end birthright citizenship, restrict mail-in voting and defund Planned Parenthood. The state also challenged the presence of National Guard troops in Los Angeles and Portland amid protests over the president’s immigration crackdowns.

The state also defended itself in court. Responding to 11 lawsuits filed by the federal government, California’s attorneys fought allegations ranging from efforts to end in-state tuition for undocumented students to claims that a law meant to ensure humane treatment of chickens led to higher egg prices.

“Since President Trump returned to office, California has been under attack — and has led the way in fighting back,” Bonta said Tuesday. “We’ve protected funding that keeps our communities safe, feeds hungry families, and ensures our kids get the education they deserve. We’ve gone all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to defend constitutional rights — and won.”

Bonta’s office drew down an auxiliary state fund appropriated for such actions by more than $19 million during the 2025-26 fiscal year, the attorney general said in a report to the Legislature also released Tuesday. But those funds — which came on top of the roughly $17 million appropriated by the Legislature for such lawsuits — were not nearly enough to cover the full cost, Bonta said in the report.

“The $19.2 million in ... funds that the Department has received to date has contributed to — but in no way has been sufficient to cover — the costs of the litigation,” the report said.

The 82 lawsuits filed since Trump began his second term in January 2025 amount to just over one per week, marking a roughly 25% increase over the more than 60 actions the state had taken by March 2026. In addition to the lawsuits and amicus briefs, California also issued 112 comment letters, formal responses to proposed changes in federal policy.

The report, which covered lawsuits filed through July 23, reported 79 cases, but Bonta’s office said Tuesday the number had already risen to 82.

The work was intensive. State lawyers and their coworkers spent 154,000 hours on the cases during the first nine months of 2025 alone, according to previous Bee reporting. That is equivalent to about 99 full-time employees.

The expenditures were worth it, Bonta said, because the state recovered billions in funding that had been frozen or threatened by the federal government.

Those funds included $5 billion for childcare and family assistance, $8.7 billion in agricultural grants, $1 billion for emergency preparedness and $55 million for public safety efforts related to terrorism, the report said. Legal efforts also recovered $7.7 billion in transportation funding and $5 billion for education, Bonta said.

The state appears well on its way to exceeding the 120 lawsuits then-Attorney General Xavier Becerra, now the Democratic candidate for governor, filed against the federal government during the first Trump administration.

The report drew a sharp response from White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson, who used a pejorative misspelling of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s name to emphasize her point.

“Instead of bragging about filing frivolous lawsuits against the Trump Administration, the California AG should focus on addressing problems in his own state – like the countless criminal illegal aliens the Newscum Administration allows to roam free and terrorize communities,” Jackson said in an email.

California is one of several Democratic-led states that have repeatedly sued the federal government under Trump and other Republican administrations.

Republican-led states likewise have frequently sued Democratic administrations.

During the administration of former President Joe Biden, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, now a candidate for the U.S. Senate, filed 100 lawsuits challenging the administration’s policies.

After Trump was re-elected in 2024, the California Legislature set aside $25 million for legal action against the federal government, to be used in addition to general fund appropriations to the state Department of Justice. Most or all of that money has already been used.

On Tuesday, Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, D-Hollister, said the money was well spent.

“That $25 million has protected an estimated $207 billion for the people of California,” Rivas said in a statement. “That isn’t politics. That’s responsible government.”

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