Unlawful defunding threat forces local governments and schools to relinquish funds for essential programs or submit to Trump ideology
SAN FRANCISCO (March 11, 2025) — The San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) and the City of Santa Fe, New Mexico, filed a lawsuit yesterday against AmeriCorps for illegally conditioning program funding on compliance with new conditions to enact President Trump’s policy preferences, including recent executive orders. AmeriCorps, the federal agency known for funding volunteer service programs to help disadvantaged communities, sent an illegal directive to grant recipients stating that all funding would be revoked unless grantees implemented President Trump’s anti-equity, anti-LGBTQ+, and anti-environmental policy preferences in their programs.
The San Francisco City Attorney’s Office is representing SFUSD in the lawsuit.
“President Trump cannot hold our kids and seniors hostage to force people to agree with him,” said San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu. “As Congress intended, AmeriCorps funding has provided our communities with critical support they need to overcome challenges and succeed. We are pleased to represent SFUSD in this matter to ensure our most vulnerable students and communities continue to benefit from these crucial programs.”
Background
AmeriCorps is a federal agency that supports a variety of public-private partnerships to address local challenges through “voluntary citizen service” members, who are typically adults between 18 and 24 years old. AmeriCorps awards grants to fund activities “designed to help the poor, the disadvantaged, the vulnerable, and the elderly.”
Congress has explicitly endorsed AmeriCorps programs that meet unmet “health, veteran, and other human, educational, environmental, or public safety needs and promote greater community unity through the use of organized teams of participants of varied social and economic backgrounds, skill levels, physical and developmental capabilities, ages, ethnic backgrounds, or genders.” Congress envisioned AmeriCorps-funded programs would identify and meet “unmet educational needs within communities,” and approved of mentoring programs “for disadvantaged youths and other youths.”
On February 13, 2025, AmeriCorps issued a directive to grantees and states that administer their grants stating that all current AmeriCorps grant awards must comply with President Trump’s executive orders and actions, including the executive orders targeting DEI programs, LGBTQ+ communities, and climate change initiatives. The AmeriCorps directive required all grant recipients immediately to self-certify that their programs comply with all administration executive orders and do not include any “activities that promote DEI activities.” If a non-compliant recipient did not want to change its programming and amend its grant, it was required to relinquish the funding by emailing the regional AmeriCorps office by February 19.
The original AmeriCorps grant agreements—previously approved by the federal government—do not prohibit grantees from using their awards on activities that promote DEI activities. In fact, during the grant application process, AmeriCorps required SFUSD to verify their “commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility” and explain how leadership and staff “have similar lived experience as the beneficiary population and/or community being served.”
If the AmeriCorps directive and new conditions are allowed to stand, the San Francisco Unified School District would likely have to eliminate a successful mentorship program for vulnerable students and forego over $650,000 at a time when the District is facing a budget deficit and layoffs. Similarly, Santa Fe would likely have to terminate two senior programs and “foster grandparent” program that pairs senior mentors with at-risk children.
The lawsuit alleges the new AmeriCorps conditions violate the Spending Clause of the Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act. Plaintiffs are seeking a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to prevent the AmeriCorps directive and new conditions from being enforced, as well as a declaration from the Court stating that the AmeriCorps directive is unconstitutional and invalid, that it was issued after the operative grant agreement dates, and that Trump’s executive orders do not impose obligations on AmeriCorps grantees.
The case is San Francisco Unified School District, et al., v. AmeriCorps, et al., U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Case No. 3:25-cv-02425. The complaint filed is available here.
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