On Tuesday, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court ruling that had found Houston County, Georgia’s health insurance policy— which denied coverage for gender-affirming surgeries—constituted sex discrimination in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

“This decision to withhold that care is steeped in animus and distorts the holding in Skrmetti to fit and further a discriminatory agenda, unlawfully expanding Skrmetti to apply to care for adults,” Khadijah Silver, Supervising Attorney of Civil Rights at Lawyers For Good Government, told LGBTQ Nation.

Stroud's complaint comes after the Government Accountability Project on Tuesday said it had, in partnership with the nonprofits Lawyers for Good Government and Stand Up for Science, filed complaints on behalf of FEMA employees who wish to remain anonymous.

In a letter to the OSC, DHS's Office of Inspector General and members of the House and Senate subcommittees on Homeland Security, attorneys for the groups argued the administration's actions "blatantly violate the federal laws protecting whistleblowers."

The Trump administration put many FEMA employees on leave, about 36 hours after they signed an open letter of dissent about agency leadership.

Lawyers for Good Government launched a new resource hub on Tuesday tracking changes in state policies around access to gender-affirming care and constitutional protections in all 50 states and six territories.

Jill Wine-Banks interviews Traci Feit Love, founder and executive director of Lawyers for Good Government (L4GG). They discuss L4GG’s mission to mobilize lawyers for pro bono work, especially in response to threats to democracy and civil rights.

Large firms now are taking longer to decide if they will take a pro bono case and avoid publicity for their efforts, she said. With major firms pulling back, clients seeking pro bono representation face a shrinking pool of lawyers, Feit Love said, and "even the impact litigation organizations are now beyond capacity."

So this summer, Lawyers for Good Government, also known as L4GG, launched an initiative to deploy what Feit Love called an "untapped resource" in high-impact constitutional litigation: small firms, solo practitioners and retirees.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin argued that July’s passage of President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act means the agency lacks both the authority and the money “to keep this boondoggle alive.”

EPA is “basically trying to make it sound like you’ll never get your funding unless you agree to their terms, and that’s just not correct,” Jillian Blanchard, vice president of climate and environmental justice at Lawyers for Good Government, told Jean about EPA’s termination notices. “People are owed what they’re owed.”

Jillian Blanchard, an attorney with the advocacy group Lawyers for Good Government, said language in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act is very clear — it does not touch obligated funds. The Trump administration knows it would probably lose in court, so they make these shocking announcements just to try to scare the grant recipients into folding, she said. 

“This is legally completely unfounded what they’re doing,” Blanchard said. “It’s really, really important for states, no matter their political leanings, to protect the rule of law …This should not be a political analysis by the state. This should be pure economics.”

In July, Lawyers for Good Government, a legal nonprofit, rolled out the Pro Bono Litigation Corps to give retired, solo, and unaffiliated attorneys the support and infrastructure needed to take on the constitutional litigation that larger firms now avoid.

The corps received seed funding from attorney Jay Sadd, former president of the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association, and is fundraising the rest of its program costs.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced it’s cancelling $93 million already allocated for solar energy projects for low-income Arkansas and Mississippi communities.

Attorneys with public interest law group Lawyers for Good Government is looking to work with Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund awardees to sue the Trump Administration over the move.

The Trump Administration says it will end a $7 billion program to help low-income households and communities get access to affordable solar energy. The move is part of President Trump’s effort to reverse former President Biden’s climate agenda and boost fossil fuels instead.

“We and many others are prepared to take them to court,” says Jillian Blanchard, vice president of climate change and environment justice at Lawyers for Good Government, which is working with grantees. Blanchard says the new law “rescinded only a much smaller portion of money — of unobligated funds.”

The hour-long hearing focused on the plaintiffs’ motion for preliminary injunction and the EPA’s motion to dismiss.

The plaintiffs argued the grant terminations are unlawful because Congress had already appropriated the funding, while the EPA argued that the “One Big Beautiful Bill” signed into law on July 4 codified the cuts, according to Katherine Christopher, supervising attorney for Climate Change and Environmental Justice Lawyers for Good Government, one of the groups representing the plaintiffs. 

The $7B program builds low-cost solar projects to slash bills for nearly 1 million families and help bolster the grid. The Trump administration is trying to end it.

Rumors that the EPA plans to terminate Solar for All have been swirling for months, said Jillian Blanchard, vice president of climate change and environmental justice at Lawyers for Good Government, a nonprofit coalition of attorneys, law students, and activists that’s challenging other EPA funding cuts.

And we are joined by the founder of Lawyers for Good Government to talk about their latest initiative. Pro Bono Litigation Corps — Lawyers for Good Government

A U.S. District Court judge in Washington hears arguments over the cancellation of funding for flood mitigation and other projects. Among them are those that would have benefited Southwest Virginia.

Ben Grillot, senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, alongside attorneys from Earthjustice, the Public Rights Project and Lawyers for Good Government, argued that Trump’s orders violated the Constitution’s separation of powers by having the executive branch void congressionally mandated spending. 

Attorneys for environmental infrastructure grant recipients told a D.C. federal judge Tuesday that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's own emails show that a proposed class action challenging the blanket termination of a climate justice and resilience grant program.

Several non-profit legal advocacy groups – EarthJustice, Southern Environmental Law Center, Public Rights Project and Lawyers for Good Government – filed the proposed class-action lawsuit alleging that the wholesale termination violated the separation of powers and is therefore unconstitutional. They also argue that the Trump administration’s decision was both “arbitrary and capricious” – in other words, made without proper reasoning or consideration of the consequences, in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act.

Nonprofits and state agencies involved in the solar initiative say they’ve been warned grants could be terminated this week.

Jillian Blanchard, vice president of climate change and environment justice at Lawyers for Good Government, which has worked closely with grantees, said outreach to EPA was ongoing. And some grant recipients said they were still hopeful that the agency would let the project continue.

"Programs who just want money to make sure they have clean air, clean water,” said Jullian Blanchard.

Several organizations, including "Lawyers for Good Government" have joined forces to file a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency, hoping to restore funding.

"These projects are about protecting American people from things that they shouldn't have to pay for themselves,” Blanchard said.

Traci Feit Love joins Lisa Graves from Court Accountability Action/True North Research to discuss the new suit filed against Donald Trump for trying to block more than $3 billion in congressionally approved grants to help communities remove lead pipes, mitigate air pollution, and even relocate communities that are at risk from coastal erosion.

City officials on Wednesday announced Sacramento had joined the lawsuit filed by Earthjustice, Southern Environmental Law Center, Public Rights Project and Lawyers for Good Government.

Reproductive rights advocates in New Jersey warn that a Republican governor could restrict access by cutting family planning funding and limiting Medicaid participation—threats that have previously led to clinic closures, higher STI rates, and delayed cancer detection. While state law protects abortion, advocates stress that “rights without access are meaningless.”

After Big Law backed off from challenging the government, smaller firms have stepped up their efforts.

— Michael H. Ansell, a solo practitioner in Morristown, New Jersey, in comments given to the New York Times, on his efforts to fight against the Trump administration through the Pro Bono Litigation Corps, a new project recently launched by legal nonprofit Lawyers for Good Government. The Times describes the Corps as “an army of solo practitioners, former government litigators, and small law firms.”

Some lawyers are volunteering to help through the Pro Bono Litigation Corps, a new group launched by the legal nonprofit Lawyers for Good Government.

The Pro Bono Litigation Corps “is a new, relatively small entrant in the battle against portions of the Trump agenda,” the article reports.

At a time when Trump administration policies are threatening the rule of law, courts and firms, prompting some Big Law firms to shy away from making waves against the government, pro bono coordinator group Lawyers for Good Government (L4GG) has launched the Pro Bono Litigation Corps, leaning on retired lawyers and boutique firm lawyers to take on high-profile public interest litigation.

Lawyers for Good Government filed a class action joined by Health Resources in Action and Springfield officials. It aims to get back $3 billion in federal funding for 350 grant recipients under the Environmental and Climate Justice Program.

Legacy Land Conservancy has filed a formal appeal with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Appeals Division (NAD) a month after the federal government’s decision to rescind a $24.6 million grant aimed at protecting 4,000 acres of southeast Michigan farmland and forest.

Solo practitioners, former government litigators and small law offices stepped up to help challenge the Trump administration’s agenda in court after the White House sought to punish many big firms. Introducing L4GG’s newest and boldest initiative: the Pro Bono Litigation Corps.

Groups such as Air Alliance Houston, Earthjustice, Southern Environmental Law Center, Public Rights Project, and Lawyers for Good Government filed the challenge on behalf of the Environmental and Climate Justice grant recipients, to seek the nationwide restoration of the program and to require the administration to reinstate awarded grant agreements.

“We are proud to stand alongside our partners and these plaintiffs to fight for the communities who have been unlawfully denied the resources Congress promised them. This is a blatant, illegal attempt to sidestep federal law and strip critical funding away from the communities who need it most,” said Jillian Blanchard, Vice President of the Climate Change and Environmental Justice Program at Lawyers for Good Government.