Colorado will join two more lawsuits challenging President Donald Trump’s executive orders.

This brings the total to nine the total lawsuits Colorado officials or entities have pursued against Trump since the new president took office in January. Separately, at least one lawsuit has been filed against the state of Colorado, seeking to reverse its “sanctuary” policies and, in effect, supporting the White House’s crackdown on illegal immigration.     

Attorney General Phil Weiser’s office said this week that Colorado would join other states in challenging Trump’s orders on gender transition services and to defend the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Colorado is joining Minnesota, Oregon and Washington stop Trump’s executive order to end federal funding to medical institutions that offer gender transition services to children.

On Feb. 13, the Washington Examiner reported that U.S. District Judge Brendan A. Hurson, an appointee of President Joe Biden, issued a temporary restraining order in Baltimore, stopping the administration from conditioning federal aid to healthcare facilities based on ending transgender surgeries and chemical interventions for individuals under 19.

The initial lawsuit was filed by seven transgender youth who were joined by various groups.

In January, Trump signed an executive order that officially defines gender based on biological sex and eliminates all federal funding for transgender care for people under 19 years old.

The White House has described surgical procedures and hormonal treatment as the irreversible “chemical and surgical mutilation” of children.

The new administration’s order said medical professionals are “maiming and sterilizing” impressionable young children by performing irreversible surgical and chemical interventions by providing them with “puberty blockers”  — drugs that suppress sex hormones during puberty — or performing sex change operations. 

“This dangerous trend will be a stain on our nation’s history, and it must end,” the order said.

Weiser, a Democrat who is running for governor, called the order “illegal” and “cruel.” 

“I’ve met with healthcare providers and parents, and they fear that if the executive order is allowed to stand, it will result in irreversible physical and mental health harm for transgender youth,” he said in a statement last Wednesday. “Parents, in consultation with trusted medical providers, know what is best for their child and should have the option to seek the care their child needs to live their best lives.”

In the legal challenge, the state’s attorneys general argue that the Trump order violates the Fifth Amendment’s equal protection clause and the Tenth Amendment, which limits federal authority over state medical practices.

Not long after Trump’s executive orders, several Colorado health institutions initially halted gender transition services for minors. Two of those hospitals — Children’s Hospital Colorado and Denver Health — have since resumed providing puberty blockers and hormone therapy to minors after the federal judge issued the temporary restraining order against the Trump administration.

Ongoing lawsuits

Here are the lawsuits that Colorado joined to challenge Trump’s orders. 

• Federal Worker Buyout: Colorado joined 21 other states in challenging Trump’s federal buyout plan, otherwise known as the “Fork in the Road” directive, which offered federal employees financial incentives to accept a buyout or face possible termination. Colorado noted that it is home to about 40,000 federal employees.

• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Two dozen states sued to stop the Trump administration and efforts by U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to halt the disbanding of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an independent agency that oversees big banks, lenders, credit card companies, and mortgage servicers.

• DOGE access to payment systems: Colorado joined 18 other states in questioning the legality of the Department of Government Efficiency’s access to the U.S. Treasury’s central payment system. According to the lawsuit, Elon Musk — who heads DOGE —  lacks proper security clearance to access Treasury data.

• Federal Funding freeze: Colorado joined dozens of states seeking a preliminary injunction to block Trump’s efforts to pause $3 trillion in federal assistance.

• Birthright citizenship: The lawsuit claims that Trump’s executive order to halt “birthright citizenship” violates the 14th Amendment.

• Firearms: Colorado joined about a dozen other states in intervening in a lawsuit to defend the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives’ policies restricting firearms.

• DACA access for DACA recipients: Colorado and several other states filed motions to intervene in a lawsuit seeking to defend access to Affordable Care Act insurance exchanges by Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients. The preemptive effort was designed to stop the new administration’s attempts to repeal rules created during the Joe Biden administration.