COLUMBUS, Ohio — Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein announced Thursday that the city is joining many other states and cities filing lawsuits against the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency over the freezing of federal funding.

Klein said in a press release that the city is specifically suing the freezing of funds for critical community-based programs, including the U.S. Forestry Grant, which is given through the city’s Recreation and Parks Department. The city was awarded $500,000 to help replenish tree canopies in disadvantaged areas, and it helped plant more than 1,200 trees in the past year, mostly in historically Black neighborhoods.

However, the city said it hasn’t been reimbursed.

“Healthy neighborhoods start from the ground up. Studies show that there is a correlation between low-income areas and low tree canopies. We will continue to make expanding our tree canopy a cornerstone of our environmental policies, not only to reduce energy usage, but to make healthier, equitable environments for residents in all of our neighborhoods," said Columbus Mayor Andrew J. Ginther in a release.

Other plaintiffs in the lawsuit include the Southern Environmental Law Center, the Public Rights Project, San Diego, Nashville, Baltimore, New Haven and Madison, Wisconsin.

Overall, the lawsuit alleges that the executive orders violate the Constitution, as the administration is cutting funding that has already been passed by Congress. 

“These Executive Orders cite no legal authority for the President or his agencies to unilaterally freeze, let alone terminate, congressionally appropriated funds,” the lawsuit states. “Nor do the Orders cite authority which would allow the executive branch to condition the spending of congressionally appropriated funds on compliance with the President’s policies and preferences—as distinct from Congress’s. Because there is none. Defendants’ freezes are not only wholly unsupported by law, but in fact directly contradict duly enacted statutes.”