The City of Seattle filed a lawsuit against President Trump that seeks to declare as unlawful and prevent the enforcement of the following executive orders: i) "Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity" (the "Anti-Diversity Order") and ii) "Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government" (the "Gender Order"). The City of Seattle asserts that these orders are unlawful because they are arbitrary and capricious, contrary to constitutional rights, and exceed the President's authority.

Plaintiff asserts that these orders seek to interfere with congressionally authorized federal grants in order to expedite the Trump Administration's anti-DEI policy agenda. Additionally, they argued that the Anti-Diversity Order imposes new and unlawful obligations on federal contract and grant recipients by compelling them to end lawful DEI training and initiatives. Further, they assert that the new requirement for recipients to certify that they are not running illegal DEI programs is being used to intimidate and encourage the abandonment of lawful initiatives due to fear of investigations and lawsuits.

Plaintiff pressed that they were placed in the untenable position of either declining the grant funds or facing potential exposure in a False Claims Act investigation in the event that the federal government interpretation of "illegal" DEI differs from theirs. As for the Gender Order, Plaintiff argues that has vague requirements and doesn't provide guidance on what constitutes the "promotion of gender ideology". Additionally, the Gender Order contains broad language and a definition of "gender ideology" which would encompass and prohibit common workplace activities and policies that comply with federal law.