Trump White House Still Wants Digital Equity Suit Tossed

WASHINGTON, May 27, 2026 – The Trump administration urged federal judges Tuesday to grant its request to dismiss a lawsuit over the cancellation of $2.75 billion in broadband adoption funding.

In May 2025, the Commerce Department told recipients of grant funding under the Digital Equity Act that the law unconstitutionally directed funding to racial minorities and that the grants were canceled. The National Digital Inclusion Alliance, one of the grant winners, sued last year to reinstate the programs, arguing the executive branch didn’t have the authority to cancel funding Congress directed it to spend.

NDIA “seeks restoration of the Program as a whole,” the Trump administration wrote in a Tuesday filing. “To even consider such relief, the Court first must address whether the Constitution authorizes the DEA’s racial classifications, which are explicit and unavoidable — and wrong.”

The reply was signed by Brett Shumate , assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Division.

The Trump administration is asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to toss NDIA’s case on the grounds that it was correct to find the digital equity programs violated the constitution with race-based requirements. The law said funding could go to projects that help get online certain populations that are less likely to be connected, like elderly, low-income, and minority areas.

Earlier this month, NDIA argued that provision didn’t rise to the level of race-based discrimination, and that the court shouldn’t toss the case without developing more of a record.

The group argued the government’s constitutional argument “appears to be pretextual cover for their policy preference against ‘equity’ plans, actions, grants, and initiatives” and that ending the programs was “a flagrant abuse of executive power.”

The day before NDIA’s grants were cancelled, President Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that Digital Equity Act programs were “woke handouts based on race” and an “ILLEGAL $2.5 BILLION DOLLAR GIVEAWAY” that he would be “ending immediately.”

The administration argued Tuesday that its rationale wasn’t a pretextual effort to comply with the post. Trump said in the post that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick agreed the program was unconstitutional.

“The President told the public the DEA’s racial classifications were unconstitutional. And [Commerce] told Plaintiff in the Grant Termination Letter that the Secretary of Commerce agreed the classifications were unconstitutional,” DOJ wrote. “That is the opposite of pretext.”

Earlier this month several groups, including NDIA, held an event where lawmakers and government officials urged the restoration of the law’s funding. FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez , and the agency’s lone Democrat, and the head of Maine’s broadband office spoke in favor of the funding.

Sen.Ben Ray Luján , D-N.M., who was at the event, introduced a bill last week that would establish a nonprofit to work with the FCC and Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration to “award grants, support research, provide training and education, engage with stakeholders, collect data, and promote policies that improve digital opportunities.”