In a victory for the rule of law, on Oct. 11, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York temporarily blocked the Trump administration from airing illegal political ads paid for by taxpayers on television.
This ruling came just days after Campaign Legal Center Action, the 501(c)(4) affiliate of Campaign Legal Center, and our co-counsel sued to block these ads on behalf of Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ (SEIU 32BJ), Empire State 32BJ SEIU PAC, Common Cause and Robert Hunter, a candidate for state House in Alabama.
What happened with President Trump’s taxpayer-funded political ads scheme?
With voting already underway for the 2026 midterm elections, President Donald Trump and members of his administration began to illegally and unconstitutionally use taxpayer funds for overtly political television advertisements that amounted to unlawful propaganda.
These ads are illegal because they use taxpayer funds earmarked by Congress for other uses. Congress, not the president, has the power of the purse.
This fundamental separation of powers principle is one of the bedrocks of our political system. There is no legal justification for the president to use the machinery of the government and funds set aside by Congress for other uses to influence electoral outcomes that further his own agenda.
Despite this, the administration shifted funds appropriated from Congress for other purposes from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to fund the president’s political ads.
For more than 75 years, Congress has repeatedly and firmly established one category of activity it does not fund: publicity and propaganda for political candidates and causes. Nevertheless, the administration attempted to circumvent this practice and Congress' role altogether.
Additionally, the use of taxpayer money for political purposes violates the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution, which guarantees equal protection under the law, and the Administrative Procedure Act, which sets rules for how federal administrative agencies propose regulations, make decisions and interact with the public.
What is being done to stop President Trump’s illegal taxpayer-funded ads?
In response, Campaign Legal Center Action and our partners filed a federal lawsuit alleging that President Trump's ads violated the Administrative Procedure Act and the Fifth Amendment.
This lawsuit asked the court to immediately stop the Trump administration from airing these illegal and unconstitutional ads and ensure that not another taxpayer dollar is used to develop, create or air another piece of this blatant political propaganda. Notably, the Trump administration did not dispute the ads’ illegality in Campaign Legal Center Action’s case at the temporary restraining order stage.
Campaign Legal Center Action and our partners secured a favorable court order on Oct. 11, 2026, preventing the Trump administration, including the Department of Homeland Security, from using taxpayer funds to create and air partisan political ads for 14 days.
The court held that the plaintiffs showed they were being harmed by the ads and were likely to win their argument that the government was using money in an improper way to pay for the ads. The judge also wrote that the harm was urgent because the ads could still affect voters before the election, and those effects couldn't be undone afterward.
By securing a court order blocking the Trump administration's taxpayer-funded political advertising campaign, Campaign Legal Center Action and our partners are protecting Congress's constitutional power over federal spending and preventing the misuse of public funds in our elections.
But this fight is not over. As this and other cases move forward, join us to support our efforts to defend the rule of law, protect voters, and ensure government power is exercised within constitutional limits.