By Frankie Sanchez
Correspondent
Minnesota is suing President Donald Trump's administration over its threat to pull future Medicaid funds from the state. The lawsuit was filed by the Attorney General of Minnesota’s office on March 5, according to PBS.
The lawsuit comes after Vice President JD Vance announced via press conference on Feb. 25 that the federal government would stop $259 million of Medicaid funding to Minnesota.
“We have decided to temporarily halt certain amounts of Medicaid funding that are going to the State of Minnesota, in order to ensure that the State of Minnesota takes its obligations seriously to be good stewards of the American people’s tax money,” Vance said.
The vice president cited cases of fraud involving school programs for children with autism for the administration's move, among other alleged frauds within Minnesota and “...a number of states all across our country.”
Minnesota’s lawsuit requests a Federal court to “issue a temporary restraining order to block the withholding for Medicaid…” according to PBS. Minnesota’s lawsuit challenges the withholding of $243 million of the $259 million.
The money withheld would pay for Minnesota’s medicaid spending in the fourth quarter of 2025, according to PBS. Named in the lawsuit are the Department of Health and Human Services, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, as well as their respective heads, Robert F. Kennedy Jr and Dr. Mehmet Oz.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison released comments along with the lawsuit on March 2, claiming that his office works diligently to combat fraud, “300 convictions and $80 million dollars in judgements and restitution since I’ve served as Attorney General.”
“Trump's attempts to look like he's fighting fraud only punish the people and families who most need the high-quality, affordable healthcare that all Minnesotans deserve,” Ellison continued in his statement.
According to Elison’s office, the cuts would amount to “roughly 7% of Minnesota’s quarterly Medicaid funding” and that “if these cuts are allowed to take effect, Minnesota could be required to significantly scale back healthcare services for low-income families across the state or other government services.” Medicaid covers more than 1.2 million Minnesotans who could not afford it otherwise.
In its lawsuit Minnesota alleges that the Trump administration violated the Constitution, both by not following due process procedures, but also because the withholding “imposed retroactive conditions on the funds,” per PBS. The suit also alleges a violation of federal law, because the Trump administration failed to offer details about its decision.
Ellison, on the continued efforts of the Trump administration in Minnesota, said “The Trump administration’s M.O. is to cut first, no matter what the law says or who gets hurt, and ask questions later, if at all. These cuts are the latest in a long series of efforts to go around the law to punish Minnesotans — but just as we fought back and won when they illegally tried to cut funding for childcare, hungry families, and our schools, we are suing them again today to make them follow the law…”
