The Balance of Power

Second Lawsuit Against DOJ for Crime Survivors

Press Release:

Attor­neys Gen­er­al Tong Files Sec­ond Law­suit Against DOJ to Pro­tect Ser­vices for Crime Sur­vivors

Preceding Event:

Recent­ly, the Depart­ment of Jus­tice and its offices ded­i­cat­ed to crime vic­tim and sur­vivor ser­vices have noti­fied states of a post hoc con­di­tion which pro­hibits some vic­tim ser­vices and crim­i­nal jus­tice funds from being used for immi­grants that are undoc­u­ment­ed or oth­er­wise unable to prove their legal sta­tus. “The funds at issue are award­ed by the Depart­ment of Jus­tice (‘DOJ’)’s Office of Jus­tice Pro­grams (‘OJP’), through its Office for Vic­tims of Crime (‘OVC’) and Bureau of Jus­tice Assis­tance (‘BJA’), and by DOJ’s Office on Vio­lence against Women (‘OVW’), which over­see var­i­ous fed­er­al grants pro­grams that pro­vide States with resources need­ed to devel­op a full ecosys­tem of pro­grams and ser­vices that sup­port access to jus­tice,” the law­suit said.

The plain­tiffs state that the defen­dants have offered no expla­na­tion or jus­ti­fi­ca­tion for the impo­si­tion of this new con­di­tion, nor have they clar­i­fied how this is to be done. The three funds at issue are Vic­tims of Crime Act (VOCA) funds, Byrne Jus­tice Assis­tance Grants funds and Vio­lence Against Women Act (VAWA) funds. “The grants fund ser­vices such as legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion in fam­i­ly court, relo­ca­tion and hous­ing assis­tance, com­pen­sa­tion for med­ical bills and funer­al costs, and oth­er civ­il legal ser­vices,” accord­ing to the Oct. 3, 2025 press release.

General Overview:

Accord­ing to the press release, “Attor­ney Gen­er­al William Tong this week joined a coali­tion of 20 attor­neys gen­er­al in fil­ing a sec­ond law­suit against the U.S. Depart­ment of Jus­tice (DOJ) to block new restric­tions on fed­er­al fund­ing that sup­ports sur­vivors of domes­tic vio­lence and oth­er vio­lent crimes…The law­suit fol­lows a sim­i­lar chal­lenge filed by the states on August 18 which sought to block the Depart­ment of Jus­tice from defund­ing VOCA grants to states that did not com­ply with Trump’s immi­gra­tion enforce­ment demands. The Trump Admin­is­tra­tion backed off that ini­tial threat, but has now issued new arbi­trary and law­less con­di­tions.

In this week’s law­suit, Attor­ney Gen­er­al Tong and the coali­tion argue that DOJ’s new restric­tions vio­late the Constitution’s Spend­ing Clause by attach­ing retroac­tive and ambigu­ous con­di­tions to grants that were already award­ed, in some cas­es years ago. The attor­neys gen­er­al also assert that DOJ act­ed in vio­la­tion of the Admin­is­tra­tive Pro­ce­dure Act by fail­ing to jus­ti­fy its rever­sal of decades-long pol­i­cy and by ignor­ing the harm the rule will cause to sur­vivors and ser­vice providers.” Last­ly, the suit states, “with respect to VAWA and VOCA Vic­tim Assis­tance, the Legal Ser­vices Con­di­tion is con­trary to law because it is in direct con­flict with gov­ern­ing reg­u­la­tions pro­vid­ing that eli­gi­bil­i­ty for ser­vices “is not depen­dent on the victim’s immi­gra­tion sta­tus.”

Connecticut Nexus:

Accord­ing to the release, “Trump’s actions threat­en $14.5 mil­lion in fund­ing to Con­necti­cut alone. Funds are used for sex­u­al assault exams, crime scene clean-up, and emer­gency shel­ters for wit­ness­es and sur­vivors, among oth­er crit­i­cal pur­pos­es.”

Date of filing:

Oct. 1, 2025

Case #:

1:25-cv-00499

Case title:

State of New York et al v. Unit­ed States Depart­ment of Jus­tice et al

Plaintiffs: 20 states and D.C.

Defendants:

Court:

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF RHODE ISLAND

Status as of Dec. 1, 2025:

OPEN
Last fil­ing: Nov. 25, 2025

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