Colorado joined yet another coalition of 18 states in filing a court brief supporting the legal challenge to two of President Donald Trump’s executive orders targeting diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility programs, even as a federal court blocked cuts to public health grants. 

In the case involving public health funding, U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy in Rhode Island granted a temporary restraining order against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services terminating $11 billion in public health grants, including $229 million in Colorado.

That lawsuit, filed April 1 by 23 states and the District of Columbia, argued that cutting billions in federal money from state public health departments would decimate health infrastructure across the country. The money, allocated by Congress during the pandemic, supported COVID-19 initiatives and mental health and substance abuse efforts.

Federal health officials have argued that the pandemic emergency is now over.

“And HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago,” the federal health department said.

In granting the temporary restraining order, McElroy said the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services does not have the power to decide when money is no longer necessary.

“I’m pleased the court agreed with me and my fellow state attorneys general that HHS and Secretary (Robert F.) Kennedy Jr. cannot arbitrarily defund committed grants for public health and behavioral health,” Weiser said on Friday. 

Meanwhile, Colorado filed the amicus brief in another case of before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, in which higher education associations and the city of Baltimore challenged provisions in the president’s executive orders that directed federal agencies to terminate “equity-related grants or contracts.” That order also mandates including in contracts or grant awards a requirement that recipients certify they do not operate programs promoting “diversity, equity and inclusion.” 

Weiser’s office has authorized joining or seeking more than 20 legal actions against the Trump administration. The lawsuits, mostly joined by other attorneys general in Democratic states, challenge funding cuts to various programs, as well as the president’s policies on tariffs and birthright citizenship.