Lambda Legal and the NAACP have joined forces to sue President Donald Trump over his executive orders to purge diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts from the federal government. Trump’s dictate has had consequences extending well beyond the Washington bureaucracy that he seeks to remake.

The lawsuit, National Urban League v. Trump, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Wednesday on behalf of the National Urban League, the National Fair Housing Alliance, and the AIDS Foundation of Chicago. All three groups receive federal grants to help historically marginalized communities with social, health, and economic services.

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Jose Abrigo, Lambda Legal’s HIV project director and lead counsel on the case, said the two organizations teamed up because “the fights to end racism, the HIV epidemic and anti-transgender bias are inseparable.”

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The suit cites three executive orders in its argument that the president’s actions threaten the very existence of the plaintiffs: the DEI order, Trump’s “gender ideology” decree, and a third, “Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions,” which in part cuts funding for organizations addressing racial inequities.

The orders exceed the president’s authority and are discriminatory, the suit argues.

“While the president may have his viewpoint, as flawed and discriminatory as it may be, the First Amendment bars him from unduly imposing his viewpoint on federal contractors and grantees so that plaintiffs are forced to either violate their organizational missions or risk losing the federal funding that is vitally necessary, and even sometimes lifesaving, for the communities they serve,” the lawsuit states.

“That choice is nearly an impossible one: While plaintiffs cannot perform their work without addressing views and ongoing concerns related to the communities they serve, they also rely on federal funding to do that work,” the lawsuit says.

The executive orders are incongruously vague and targeted at the same time, the suit argues. While even lacking definitions of the terms they seek to ban, the orders single out groups with “clear discriminatory purpose in violation of equal protection.” Plaintiffs are left open to “unfettered discretion” and arbitrary interpretations in violation of their rights to due process.

The AIDS Foundation of Chicago receives a majority of its funding — $35 million annually — from the Health and Human Services Department and Housing and Urban Development. Approximately 8.5% of its clients are either “transgender, nonbinary or genderqueer,” identities erased from federal recognition in Trump’s executive orders.

Revoking federal funds would end services for nearly 7,000 people, including 1,300 households that receive housing assistance through the plaintiff organizations, the suit states.

“These policies drip with contempt for transgender people, and pose a significant threat to critical health and HIV services that support marginalized communities, putting lives at risk,” said lead counsel Abrigo.

The National Fair Housing Alliance, a civil rights group that addresses housing and lending discrimination, would be required to stop using words that are written into the very laws that it helps people navigate. Grants using the words “underserved,” “affirmatively,” “systemic,” “adversely,” “accessible” and “disparate,” among others, are all in jeopardy.

The lawsuit is the second filed against the Trump administration for its orders targeting DEI. Groups representing college professors and school diversity officers sued Trump earlier this month making similar arguments.

In a statement on Wednesday, Harrison Fields, a White House spokesman, called the lawsuits “nothing more than an extension of the left’s resistance” and said the administration was “ready to face them in court.”

“Radical leftists can either choose to swim against the tide and reject the overwhelming will of the people, or they can get on board and work with President Trump to advance his wildly popular agenda,” Fields said.

During Trump’s first term, Lambda Legal sued the administration 14 times. They won 12 of those cases.

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