Domestic violence coalitions and nonprofits sue HHS over grant conditions on gender identity, DEI and Housing First
Twenty-seven plaintiffs, among them 24 state coalitions and a county hospital, asked the federal court in Rhode Island on Oct. 29 to set aside conditions that tie HHS grants to the administration's priorities.
Providence. Twenty-four domestic violence and sexual assault coalitions, two Rhode Island nonprofits and a county hospital in Minnesota sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Oct. 29 over conditions the department writes into its grants. The case, Rhode Island Coalition for Children and Families v. Kennedy, No. 1:26-cv-00814, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island.
The 27 plaintiffs are led by the Rhode Island Coalition for Children and Families, a membership group of 38 community-based nonprofits, Community Care Alliance of Woonsocket and the Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence; Hennepin Healthcare System is the hospital. Democracy Forward, the Lawyers' Committee for Rhode Island and the ACLU Foundation of Rhode Island represent them.
What the conditions say
According to the complaint, HHS revised its guidance for funding notices on April 3, 2026, and told its divisions to put two things in discretionary awards. One is a term requiring recipients to use the money "in alignment with" agency priorities posted online. The other is a set of principles from an August 2025 executive order on federal grantmaking. Under them, awards must, where applicable, "demonstrably advance the President's policy priorities" and may not fund racial preferences, "denial by the recipient of the sex binary in humans," illegal immigration or initiatives that "promote anti-American values."
The complaint says the Administration for Children and Families added the alignment term to its standard terms for awards made on or after April 10 and that other divisions followed. One ACF funding notice of August 2026 asks applicants to certify their commitment to ACF's priorities, which say ACF "will not fund programs that promote divisive Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) ideologies." The plaintiffs say the conditions also bar support for transgender people and the use of Housing First strategies.
What the plaintiffs ask
The suit argues that the conditions violate the Administrative Procedure Act, the Spending Clause and the separation of powers, and that the priorities are so vague that grantees risk False Claims Act suits or terminated grants. It asks the court to vacate the conditions, stay them while the case is pending and bar HHS from imposing them or any substantially similar condition on any HHS funding recipient. Coalitions with awards under one ACF program must accept its terms when they draw down funds, starting as early as November, the complaint says.
“These restrictions are incredibly broad and put grant applicants between a rock and a hard place.”
Many of the same coalitions sued HHS and the Department of Housing and Urban Development in the same court in July 2025 over earlier grant conditions. A federal judge rejected those restrictions on Aug. 14, 2026, according to the ACLU of Rhode Island.
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