Rights groups sue Trump administration over proposed childcare funding cuts

Civil rights groups sued the Trump administration on Monday, after the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) failed to respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for records relating to attempts to freeze billions of dollars in federal childcare funding in response to fraud claims.

The lawsuit was brought on by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the ACLU of Illinois, the ACLU of Colorado, the National Women’s Law Center and the National Center for Law and Economic Justice.

The groups accused the agency of failing to respond to a March FOIA request seeking documents relating to the administration’s funding freeze affecting five Democrat-led states: California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York.

The FOIA request also sought internal communications between federal officials and influencer Nick Shirley, whose viral YouTube video posted in 2025 documented his investigation into Somali-run childcare centers in Minnesota, alleging they were fraudulent.

“The public deserves to know why the Trump administration is restricting access to critical child care and family assistance funds that hundreds of thousands of families rely on,” Linda Morris, senior staff attorney at the ACLU Women’s Rights Project, said in a statement.

She continued: “These restrictions are a threat to the very programs that help families stay afloat and enable parents to work, attend school, and care for their children. We are going to court to ensure the public gets the transparency that federal law requires.”

The complaint claims HHS acknowledged its receipt of the FOIA request on March 11 but has yet to provide any records more than four months later.

The agency told the groups in April that processing had been delayed due to a transition to a new data system and organizational changes, according to the lawsuit.

The suit is asking the court to order the agency to promptly process the FOIA request and release all nonexempt documents in a timely manner.

“The Freedom of Information Act was created so that organizations and ordinary citizens could hold the U.S. government accountable, and we will fight to ensure that the executive branch follows federal law and gives the public the transparency it deserves,” ACLU of Colorado legal director Tim Macdonald said in a statement.

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