The Port of Seattle and a coalition of Pacific Northwest local governments filed a federal lawsuit on Monday seeking to block the Trump administration from attaching anti-DEI, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-abortion conditions to funding that Congress already approved. The case, titled Port of Seattle, et al. v. Blanche, et al., was lodged in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington and targets restrictions plaintiffs say threaten public transportation, housing, public safety and public health dollars across the region.
The suit, filed under docket number 2:26-cv-03301, lists the Port of Seattle alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. County, Thurston County, Snohomish County, Kitsap County, the City of Bellingham and the City of Bremerton as plaintiffs, according to KOMO News. Court records reviewed by PacerMonitor confirm the filing landed on September 14, 2026, and also names King County among the co-plaintiffs. The lawsuit challenges efforts by federal agencies to fold grant conditions drawn from Trump administration executive orders into funding streams for public transportation, public safety, emergency preparedness, environmental protection, flood risk reduction, agricultural assistance, parks and recreation, public health and housing.
Port Says Jobs and Traveler Safety Are on the Line
Port of Seattle Commission President Ryan Calkins said the port is fighting the administration's effort to undermine programs that expand opportunity, per KOMO's reporting. The port relies on federal resources to keep operations safe, secure and efficient, and it says it serves as a catalyst for more than 204,000 jobs. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport alone handles nearly 53 million travelers annually, according to the filing detailed by KOMO News.
The named federal defendants extend well beyond the agencies typically associated with DEI enforcement. The suit challenges conditions imposed by the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, Commerce, Agriculture, Energy, Labor and Interior, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, per the KOMO report. Among the disputed directives, KOMO notes, is language that would force local police agencies to support federal civil immigration enforcement.
Officials Point to Prior Legal Wins
King County Prosecuting Attorney Leesa Manion said King County recently fought and won similar lawsuits protecting hundreds of millions of dollars, and argued there is no legal basis for the president to impose anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-abortion directives as a prerequisite for congressionally authorized funding, according to KOMO News. King County Executive Girmay Zahilay said the administration is using federal dollars to pressure local governments and that King County will not choose between relied-upon funding and being welcoming and inclusive, the outlet reported.
Those prior wins refer to Martin Luther King, Jr. County, et al. v. Scott Turner, et al., an earlier case filed May 2, 2025, by eight local governments across five states — including King, Pierce and Snohomish counties in Washington alongside New York City, Boston, Columbus, San Francisco and Santa Clara County, according to the Public Rights Project. U.S. District Court Judge Barbara J. Rothstein issued a preliminary injunction in that case on June 3, 2025, blocking federal agencies from withholding housing and transportation grants, holding that Congress alone has the constitutional power to set grant conditions.
Ninth Circuit Ruling Set the Stage
On August 25, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit largely affirmed Rothstein's injunction, ruling that the federal government exceeded congressional authority by attaching broad anti-DEI, anti-abortion and civil immigration conditions to federal housing and transit grants, according to SF.gov. The appellate panel also held that federal agencies cannot enforce anti-DEI grant conditions across an entire recipient organization to penalize programs that receive no federal funding, according to the County Counsel of Santa Clara County. Zahilay reported in August that the earlier injunction protected or secured $364 million in federal funding for King County programs, including transit and affordable housing.
That legal groundwork traces back to a Department of Justice memorandum issued by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in May 2025, which launched a Civil Rights Fraud Initiative to investigate and prosecute federal funding recipients under the False Claims Act over alleged civil rights violations tied to diversity initiatives, according to court filings referenced by the Ninth Circuit. President Trump followed with an executive order in March 2026, titled Addressing DEI Discrimination by Federal Contractors, directing agencies to insert mandatory contract clauses banning what it called racially discriminatory DEI activities and exposing noncompliant grantees to False Claims Act liability, per the White House.
Seattle's Earlier Fight Over $370 Million
This is not Seattle's first legal clash over federal funding strings. Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison and Mayor Bruce Harrell filed a separate federal lawsuit in July 2025 challenging Executive Orders 14168 and 14173, alleging the administration unlawfully threatened nearly $370 million in federal funding for Seattle infrastructure and public safety, as reported by Law & Crime — a fight Hoodline covered at the time.
The new complaint argues the president attempted to revise the terms of congressional funding to advance his own directives, even though the funds at stake were awarded by Congress to local agencies that plaintiffs say already met all required conditions. The plaintiffs are asking the court to declare the grant conditions unlawful, void and unenforceable and to block federal agencies from imposing or enforcing them, according to KOMO News. The next anticipated step is a motion for a preliminary injunction in the Western District of Washington, mirroring the path that produced Rothstein's earlier order.
