WATCH: Washington AG sues Trump admin over voting, research cuts, public services

(The Center Square) – It was a busy day Friday for Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown, whose office filed three lawsuits against the administration of President Donald Trump.

The three lawsuits involve the Trump administration's efforts to overhaul elections in the U.S., impose funding cuts and delays to medical and public health research, and dismantle the federal agency charged with supporting the nation's libraries.

At a Friday news conference, Brown said Washington and Oregon joined a lawsuit to prevent Trump from taking over the administration of state election systems.

Trump recently signed an order that changes federal voting registration requirements and requires votes sent by mail to arrive no later than Election Day to be counted. Washington, Oregon, and 16 other states accept ballots postmarked on or before Election Day.

The legal complaint alleges that Trump does not have the authority to set rules for how states conduct elections and therefore his executive order is illegal.

“The president has no authority to set rules for how states conduct their elections,” Brown said. “It is the states that decide how voters are registered. It is the states that decide how ballots are counted.”

Brown added that Washington allowing mail-in votes resulted in the state having one of the highest rates of voting in the nation. Washington switched to a voting-by-mail process in 2011.

A White House press release defended the order, saying that it aims to preserve and protect the integrity of American elections through measures like proof of citizenship and deadlines for mail-in ballots.

Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs joined Brown in condemning the executive order. According to Hobbs, Trump’s order requires documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote, disproportionately affecting seniors, low-income people and naturalized citizens.

Washington state is known for delayed calls in state and local races due to ballots arriving after Election Day. In 2024, more than 300,000 ballots were received by county election officials after Election Day. Trump’s order would bar those ballots from being counted.

Also announced on Friday is that Brown is co-leading a multistate lawsuit against the Trump administration for what his office calls illegal funding cuts and delays to medical and public health research. The case involved a coalition of attorneys general from 16 states, including Washington, that filed a separate legal complaint in the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts that challenges the Trump administration’s delays in reviewing National Institutes of Health grants, including those already awarded.

According to the lawsuit, NIH has sent hundreds of letters to grant recipients at public research institutions since March. These letters notified these researchers that the grants were terminated because they “no longer effectuate agency priorities.”

The lawsuit alleges that the terminated grants were for projects deemed by the Trump administration as related to DEI, transgender issues, or vaccine hesitancy, among other topics the Trump administration has moved to defund.

Brown and 21 other state attorneys general filed a separate case against the Trump administration for canceling National Institutes of Health grants for hundreds of research institutions across the U.S. On March 5, the attorneys general secured a preliminary injunction from a federal judge that prevented the administration from cutting the funding as the case proceeds.

Washington is also one of 21 states suing the Trump administration to protect libraries, museums and other small agency programs. The lawsuit is related to a Trump-issued executive order that would dismantle federal agencies including the Institutes of Museum and Library Services, Minority Business Development Agency, and the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.

Brown’s office said these three agencies collectively provide hundreds of millions of dollars for programs in all 50 states.