The Brief

A federal judge on Monday blocked the authority of President Donald Trump’s administration to withhold some federal counterterrorism funding from states that don’t meet its election administration demands.

Courts have largely rejected the administration’s previous efforts, which reflect untrue claims about widespread voting fraud and come ahead of November’s midterm elections where Democrats seek to take control of one or both chambers of Congress and check Trump’s power.

U.S. District Judge Amir Ali in Washington, D.C., wrote in a 24-page opinion that federal agencies didn’t have the authority from Congress to add such conditions to the grants, and that the conditions didn’t meet legal thresholds requiring them to relate to the underlying grant purpose.

Neither the Department of Homeland Security nor its subagency handling the grants, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, immediately responded to a request for comment. The grant conditions were the latest in a line of actions by Trump’s administration to shape how elections are run, a task that has long been the job of states.

The plaintiffs that sued were Columbus, Ohio; Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee; and El Paso and Harris counties in Texas.

Over the summer, a FEMA antiterrorism grant announcement included a list of election-related requirements, saying that 20% of grants for states and urban areas would be withheld until they comply.

The program includes more than $1 billion for states and local and tribal governments for a variety of programs aimed at preventing terror at crowded places, online, with border security — and around elections. FEMA expects to award 56 grants.

The list of items for states includes verifying the citizenship of all registered voters and election workers.

Places that use electronic voting systems that use barcodes or QR codes to count votes would have to submit plans to switch to hand-marked paper ballots. Every jurisdiction would have to show it audits results.

In the lawsuit, the cities and counties said FEMA had no authority to impose those conditions, “not under its governing statute and not under the Constitution.”

Congress authorized FEMA to help jurisdictions protect critical infrastructure from terrorism and cyberattacks, not to decide who can vote, how ballots must be counted or how states maintain voter rolls, the cities and counties wrote.

“Never before has FEMA purported to regulate how states and counties run elections,” they said in the lawsuit.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has beefed up protections for reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights in his latest rebuke of what he and advocates say are attacks from the Trump administration.

The outgoing governor signed over a dozen bills into law, some authored by Bay Area lawmakers, that increase safeguards around LGBTQ+ identity data, change how health insurance companies reimburse for HIV prevention drugs and expand access to medication abortion on certain community college campuses.

“The Trump administration has launched an all-out assault on the LGBTQ community, using medical records to target U.S. service members and civilians alike, hurting countless people and betraying hard-won trust,” Newsom said in a statement. “California will not stand for it.”

Newsom’s package of new laws is only the latest instance in which California has been at odds with President Donald Trump over policies focused on transgender residents. The administration unsuccessfully sued the state over its refusal to ban transgender athletes from girls sports. The president banned transgender people in the military early into his second term, but one of the bills Newsom signed this weekend expands veteran benefits to service members who were discharged under that policy.

Tony Hoang, executive director of Equality California, said the signings were yet another show of how the state responds to the dismantling of LGBTQ+ protections.

“California has spent decades building some of the strongest LGBTQ+ civil rights protections in the country, and we will continue building on that progress as long as our community remains under attack,” Hoang said in a statement.

The California Family Council, an advocacy group with a stated goal of “advancing God’s Design for Life, Family, & Liberty,” has opposed at least one of the signed bills, Senate Bill 1114, over what they say is a prioritization of ideological confidentiality over child welfare.

SB 1114 limits when sexual orientation, intersex and gender identity collected can be shared. Healthcare providers are also required to notify the attorney general when they receive subpoenas for protected healthcare activities.

“1114 does not protect children; it protects bureaucratic secrecy at the expense of parents and families,” the group said in opposition earlier this year.

Newsom also signed SB 934, authored by San Francisco state Sen. Scott Wiener. The law updates the state’s ban on conversion therapy in response to the U.S. Supreme Court striking down a conversion therapy ban in Colorado.

Newsom has long championed LGBTQ+ rights since he was mayor of San Francisco, including issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in defiance of a federal ban. But he’s also faced criticism for previous comments on transgender athletes and a recent veto on a bill that would have prevented future governors from honoring extradition requests for gender-affirming healthcare providers facing charges in other states.

In March of last year, Newsom said on his podcast while in conversation with late conservative activist Charlie Kirk that it was unfair for a transgender teenage girl to compete in a track and field competition.

Newsom told KQED’s Political Breakdown that he disagreed with “vitriol” in discussions surrounding the topic, but that it is “unfair in these circumstances.” Months later, Newsom said it needed to be more clear when transgender girl athletes can participate alongside cisgender girls.

Separately and in a veto message a week ago, Newsom said that he agreed with AB 2164’s authors about the importance of protecting gender-affirming healthcare. But he said he was “troubled by the precedent that would be set if an outgoing administration agreed with the Legislature to erode the executive authority of an incoming Governor.”

A Senate bill, co-sponsored by Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, strengthens access to the HIV prevention drug PrEP by improving reimbursement practices for healthcare providers. The law requires health insurance companies to cover long-acting injectable PrEP through medical and outpatient prescription drug benefits, which Lara said will remove “unnecessary barriers” to the care.

“By enacting this first-of-its-kind state law, California is again leading the country in making sure insurance companies never stand in the way of people accessing HIV prevention,” said Tyler TerMeer, CEO of San Francisco AIDS Foundation.

Newsom’s signature on reproductive rights bills could include an expansion of abortion services to community college campuses.

Assemblymember Catherine Stefani, who represents San Francisco, authored AB 2540, which requires community colleges with student health centers to offer medication abortion services if lawmakers dedicate funding.

Stefani said in announcing the legislation in April that the services are “essential health care, full stop. Yet too many community college students face real barriers to accessing care.”

The state already requires schools in the University of California and California State University systems to offer the same services.

The latest budget from the Olympics organizing committee for the 2028 Games is now public, but like other reports from LA28, it’s light on key financial details.

It comes as L.A.’s city controller pressures LA28 to be more transparent and release more specific data. Controller Kenneth Mejia’s deadline of today (Sept. 28) for more information appears likely to pass with no action from the Olympics organizers.

The newly public report from LA28, which includes a summary of the organization’s 2025 finances, puts LA28’s budget at $7.26 billion, up from a previous estimate of $7.15 billion. That includes expense line items such as $1.4 billion for venue infrastructure, $1.42 billion for “sport, games services & operations,” and $586 million for “other expenses.” It doesn’t provide a more comprehensive breakdown. It also doesn’t include budgets or schedules for specific venue construction projects or a list of contracts that LA28 entered into during the 2025 fiscal year.

The lack of financial specificity is despite guidelines in an agreement between the city of L.A. and LA28 requiring the organizing committee to submit updates on venue improvements, including schedules and budgets, and a list of all contracts it entered into valued at more than $1 million each fiscal year.

Instead, the report includes a single page summarizing its contracts over $1 million, which LA28 says total more than $687 million. That list omits contractor names and specific amounts. According to the city administrative officer, LA28 left out those specifics from the annual report and provided them directly to certain city liaisons because of a concern from LA28 that making details public would risk its ability to negotiate competitive contracts.

That’s not good enough for City Controller Kenneth Mejia, who last month wrote to LA28 General Counsel Elisabeth Freinberg asking the organizing committee to submit a detailed budget, including specific line items breaking down its broad budget categories.

“The most recently submitted $7.26 billion budget is limited to one half page of information that lacks the detail necessary to conduct meaningful analysis and evaluate the feasibility of the budget and LA28’s financial standing,” Mejia wrote in that letter.

In an interview with LAist, Mejia emphasized that the city of Los Angeles is the financial backstop for the Games, meaning if LA28 loses money, L.A. taxpayers will foot the bills the organizers can’t pay.

“ The documents we requested will help us understand how they're doing as an organization, because if they go over budget, we pay,” Mejia said.

LA28 has yet to respond to Mejia’s request, according to his office.

“LA28 works closely with the city to ensure that it satisfies all applicable requirements under the games agreement,” LA28 spokesperson Jacie Prieto Lopez said in an emailed statement to LAist on Monday. “All prior annual reports have been submitted to and accepted by the city, and we look forward to continuing to meet our obligations.”

It’s unclear what the city controller’s next move will be if LA28 doesn’t comply with his deadline for more data. His office says he will continue to push LA28 for more financial information. So far, Mejia is the only city official publicly pressuring LA28 to open its books.