---
title: Attorney General Brown Joins Coalition Against Trump Administration's Funding Conditions
canonical: https://marylandfeed.com/attorney-general-brown-joins-coalition-against-trump-administrations-funding-conditions/
published: '2026-11-06T17:21:58-05:00'
updated: '2026-11-06T17:21:58-05:00'
author: MarylandFeed Staff
section: Attorney General
tags:
- Attorney General
- Elections
- Governor
- Emergency Management
- Voting
- Lawsuits
source: Office of the Attorney General of Maryland
source_url: https://oag.maryland.gov/News/pages/attorney-general-brown-supports-legal-challenge-to-trump-administration%e2%80%99s-unlawful-conditions-on-federal-counterterrorism-f.aspx
publisher: MarylandFeed
attribution: Copyright MarylandFeed. Quote with credit to MarylandFeed and a link to the canonical URL above.
---

# Attorney General Brown Joins Coalition Against Trump Administration's Funding Conditions

On November 6, 2026, Attorney General Anthony G. Brown [joined a coalition of 24 attorneys general and the governor of Kentucky](https://oag.maryland.gov/News/Documents/pdfs/Nashville%20Stay-Stage%20Amicus%20-%20As-Filed.pdf) in opposing the Trump administration's conditions on federal counterterrorism funding. The coalition filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, supporting local governments challenging the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's actions regarding Homeland Security Grant Program funding.

According to Brown, the administration's conditions would unlawfully require states to use a faulty database for voter verification and abandon investments in voting equipment, undermining the constitutional authority of states to administer elections.

---

### Press Release: Office of the Attorney General of Maryland

*Published November 6, 2026. Reproduced in full from the [Office of the Attorney General of Maryland](https://oag.maryland.gov/News/pages/attorney-general-brown-supports-legal-challenge-to-trump-administration%e2%80%99s-unlawful-conditions-on-federal-counterterrorism-f.aspx).*

#### Attorney General Brown Supports Legal Challenge to Trump Administration’s Unlawful Conditions on Federal Counterterrorism Funding

**BALTIMORE, MD** , Attorney General Anthony G. Brown [joined a coalition of 24 attorneys general and the governor of Kentucky](https://oag.maryland.gov/News/Documents/pdfs/Nashville%20Stay-Stage%20Amicus%20-%20As-Filed.pdf) opposing the Trump administration’s efforts to coerce states and local governments into adopting its election administration priorities by threatening crucial counterterrorism funding.

Attorney General Brown and the coalition filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in support of a group of local governments challenging decisions by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to impose unlawful conditions on Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP) funding. Maryland receives more than $10 million in HSGP funding each year, which supports the state’s efforts to protect residents from terrorism, cyberattacks, and more.

“States cannot be forced to surrender their constitutional authority to run their own elections just because the President disagrees with how they administer them,” **said Attorney General Brown**. “Maryland stands with the local governments challenging the Trump Administration’s unlawful attempt to withhold counterterrorism resources to advance its political agenda.”

The challenged conditions would require state election officials to use DHS’s faulty Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database to verify the citizenship of every registered voter in states’ voter databases. They would also force states and local election authorities to abandon hundreds of millions of dollars and years of investments in modernizing voting equipment and transition to paper-ballot-only systems, threatening the accuracy and accessibility of the vote in Maryland. The Constitution grants states the authority to administer federal elections, subject only to regulation by Congress. Congress has repeatedly rejected bills favored by the Trump administration that would impose similar requirements on the states, so the administration has resorted to improperly leveraging state funding to advance its priorities.

The lower court found the election conditions were unlawful and ordered the Trump administration not to enforce them, but the administration is now seeking a stay of that order while it appeals the lower court’s decision. Attorney General Brown and the coalition are asking the appeals court to deny the stay.

In July, Attorney General Brown and a coalition of attorneys general [filed a separate legal challenge](https://oag.maryland.gov/News/Pages/Attorney-General-Brown-Files-Lawsuit-Challenging-Unlawful-Conditions-on-Federal-Counterterrorism-Funding.aspx) to these and other unlawful conditions that the administration is attempting to impose on this funding. Attorney General Brown and the coalition filed that lawsuit after successfully defending these same grants from unlawful conditions in 2025.

Joining Attorney General Brown in filing the amicus brief are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaiʻi, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin, along with the governor of Kentucky.

Source: [Office of the Attorney General of Maryland](https://oag.maryland.gov/News/pages/attorney-general-brown-supports-legal-challenge-to-trump-administration%e2%80%99s-unlawful-conditions-on-federal-counterterrorism-f.aspx)