Attorney General Clark Celebrates Trump Administration's Decision to Drop Appeals of Court Order Blocking Illegal Conditioning of Transportation Grant Funding

Pending court approval, case will be fully and permanently resolved in Vermont's favor

Attorney General Charity Clarktoday announced that the U.S. Department of Justice filed a motion to dismiss its appeal of the final judgment permanently blocking the Trump Administration's effort to unlawfully impose immigration enforcement requirements on billions of dollars in annual U.S. Department of Transportation grants. By dropping its appeal, the Trump Administration concedes the case, fully resolving it in favor of Vermont and the 21 other states that sued the Administration.

Vermont receives federal grant funding from the Department of Transportation to build and maintain vital travel infrastructure like the roads, highways, airways, and bridges that connect communities and carry their residents to their workplaces and homes. This includes the funding necessary to prevent fatal traffic accidents and stop drunk drivers; the funding to provide transit for seniors and those with disabilities; and the funding that protects and restores roads after environmental disasters like fires or flooding. Neither the purpose of these grants, nor their grant criteria, are in any way connected to immigration enforcement.

The Constitution is clear: Congress, not the President, decides how federal money is spent. And for decades, Congress has passed laws guaranteeing funding to states to improve their roads and protect those who use them - funds that the federal government generally has by virtue of the taxes paid to it by states like Vermont. Yet despite the constraints imposed by Congress and the Constitution, the Trump Administration attempted to seize Congress's power of the purse by imposing unlawful conditions on transportation grants. In doing so, the Trump Administration violated two key principles that underlie the American system of checks and balances: agencies in the Executive Branch cannot act contrary to the authority conferred on them by Congress, and the federal government cannot use the spending power to coerce states into adopting its preferred policies.

On November 4, 2025, the district court issued final judgment in favor of Vermontand the states that challenged this unlawful conduct, issuing an order permanently enjoining the Trump Administration from unlawfully imposing the conditions and vacating the conditions across all U.S. Department of Transportation grants. In issuing its decision, the Court found that the Trump Administration has "blatantly overstepped their statutory authority, violated the APA, and transgressed well-settled constitutional limitations on federal funding conditions. The Constitutions demands the Court set aside this lawless behavior."

A copy of the motion to dismiss is available on our website.

CONTACT: Amelia Vath, Senior Advisor to the Attorney General, 802-828-3171