Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, LITIGATION NEWS, TRENDS—Seattle sues Trump over executive orders, claims ‘overreach into areas of local control’, (Aug 1, 2025)

By Brandi O. Brown, J.D.

The lawsuit specifically challenges portions of two executive orders issued by the White House, asking the court to declare them and the agency actions implementing them as unlawful and unconstitutional.

The Seattle City Attorney’s office has announced its filing of a lawsuit against the Trump Administration relating to executive orders that it contends “unlawfully tie federal grant funds” to the administration’s “policy preferences” on DEI and gender ideology.

The lawsuit, filed in the Western District of Washington, challenges Executive Order 14168, entitled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” and Executive Order 14173, entitled “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.” It asks the court to declare that the EOs and the agency actions implementing them are unlawful and unconstitutional. It also asks the court to prevent the administration from implementing and enforcing them against the city.

“There are limits to presidential authority and no one, not even Mr. Trump, can ignore the constraints of the rule of law,” said City Attorney Davison. “This is another attempt at the federal executive level to overreach into areas of local control. Federal law is not made by one person’s edicts, but by the legislative branch, and it is interpreted and applied by the judicial branch. These are coercive attempts at control by threatening federal funds and linking them to projects and initiatives that are entirely unrelated.”

The case is No. 2:25-cv-01435-JHC.

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