Three civil rights organizations announced Monday they have taken legal action against President Donald Trump’s administration, challenging the government’s effort to cut off federal childcare and family assistance funding.
The American Civil Liberties Union, the National Women’s Law Center, and the National Center for Law and Economic Justice filed the lawsuit against the federal Department of Health and Human Services. As part of the case, the groups are seeking records of communications between federal officials and pro-Trump right-wing online influencer Nick Shirley.
A video posted by Shirley in late 2025 went viral and was publicly promoted and credited by senior administration officials as the driving force behind the attempted funding restrictions. The video made allegations that certain childcare centers in Minnesota were operating fraudulently. However, news organizations later reported that those claims were misleading and exaggerated.
Earlier this month, HHS walked back a $10 billion freeze it had attempted to impose on childcare subsidies and social services funding in five Democratic-governed states — California, Illinois, Colorado, New York, and Minnesota. The reversal came after the freeze ran into significant legal roadblocks.
A federal judge had already halted the government from carrying out the freeze while a separate lawsuit brought by those five states continues to work its way through the courts.
HHS did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.
Trump, who earlier this year ordered an aggressive immigration enforcement push in Minnesota, has alleged that Somali communities in the state have been involved in fraud. Rights organizations argue that the crackdown has generated a climate of fear among immigrants and that the administration has used isolated fraud cases as a pretext to target immigrant communities. They also question Trump’s credibility on fraud issues, pointing to pardons he has granted to individuals previously convicted of fraud.
The administration’s attempts to freeze funding have extended beyond childcare, targeting universities and states over a variety of issues. Those include fraud allegations, climate-related programs, diversity initiatives, transgender policies, and pro-Palestinian demonstrations related to the conflict in Gaza.
Advocates for civil liberties argue that these funding freezes violate constitutional protections for free speech and due process.
Activists representing minority communities have raised similar concerns in other legal actions, alleging that the Trump administration has worked with right-wing online groups to target them. Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil, who is facing a deportation effort by the administration and spent months in immigration detention last year, filed two lawsuits against the government in the past week. In one of those suits, he claims federal officials collaborated with right-wing and anti-Palestinian organizations to go after pro-Palestinian activists.
