WASHINGTON — A coalition of clean energy groups and the city of St. Paul, Minnesota, sued the Trump administration on Monday, challenging what they described as nakedly partisan funding cuts during the government shutdown that wiped out around $7.5 billion for projects in Democratic-led states.

The lawsuit, which names the White House budget director, Russell Vought, as a main defendant, claims that the Trump administration took advantage of the lapse in government funding in October to slash energy programs in states where voters have supported Democrats.

The lawsuit came as a group of Democrats in the Senate broke rank on Sunday to support a funding measure that, if approved by the House, would end the shutdown after more than 40 days of deep financial pain and sputtering government services.

According to the lawsuit, immediately as the shutdown began Oct. 1, the White House kicked into high gear to halt billions destined for Democratic-led states, in an apparent attempt to gain leverage as lawmakers settled into a prolonged fight over funding. It argues the decision amounted to “intentional discrimination” and “bare animus,” inflicting deliberate hardship on states that voted against Donald Trump in the last presidential election.

In a social media post on Oct. 1, Vought announced the government would terminate close to $8 billion for climate-related projects in 16 states, all represented by senators who caucus with the Democratic Party.

As the projects were officially terminated, according to the complaint, they would be unlikely to be revived even once the shutdown ends.

The coalition argues in the suit that the move clearly violated the Fifth Amendment’s equal protection clause, and asks that a judge restore the canceled funding.

“Under bedrock equal protection principles, the government must have some legitimate state interest when it treats one group differently from a similarly situated group,” the coalition said in the suit.

With the shutdown looming in September, Trump told reporters that he welcomed making cuts in parts of the country that he viewed as hostile to his agenda.

“We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible, that are bad for them and irreversible by them, like cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like,” Trump told reporters on Sept. 30.

Directs Vought to Make Cuts

He followed up by publicly directing Vought to make those cuts, writing on Truth Social, “I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity.”

The Energy Department confirmed Oct. 2 that it had terminated 321 funding awards to 223 projects, including some focused on building electric vehicle charging stations and others designed to offset energy costs for consumers or reduce methane emissions. Every single grantee was based in a Democratic-led state.

“One need not be a statistician to understand this partisan skew did not happen by chance,” the lawsuit said.

Other cuts the White House sought during the shutdown also affected Republican states.

Even as federal courts ordered the government to restore food stamps through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the White House vehemently opposed funding the program, going as far as to order states to claw back benefits already provided to millions of low-income families.

Aside from the funding at issue in the lawsuit, Vought also moved in October to suspend around $18 billion supporting two flagship transit projects in New York City, reaching roughly $28 billion total in other Democratic-led cities and counties.

In the lawsuit Monday, the groups suing said they were caught up in indiscriminate retaliation that was likely to jeopardize their work long past the shutdown.

“They did nothing wrong other than being located in, or carrying out an award in, a state whose citizens engage in political speech that the government disfavors,” the groups’ lawyers said in the suit.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Zach Montague/Philip Cheung
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