Arizona attorney general defends role in 25 multistate lawsuits against Trump administration

PHOENIX — Arizona’s top prosecutor hopes she won’t have to file or join any more lawsuits against the Trump administration.

However, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes defended her decision to get the state involved in 25 multistate lawsuits during an interview Monday on KTAR News 92.3 FM’s The Mike Broomhead Show.

“If we could stop these lawsuits tomorrow, I would love that because, obviously, I’ve got a lot of other work to do,” Mayes said. “We are doing that work. But every time the president of the United States, whoever they are, violates the Constitution or harms Arizona by violating the law, we’re going to try to stop them.”

The lawsuits, which began being filed the day after President Donald Trump took office in January, cover a variety of topics, from birthright citizenship to federal public health funding, layoffs of federal employees, the protection of private information and more.

“I think everybody should be in favor of protecting our Constitution,” she said.

Mayes has been pleased with the results she has seen so far in the courts.

“We’ve won or gotten a positive result in about 80 percent of those lawsuits,” she said.

Positive results for the lawsuits include judges imposing temporary restraining orders or issuing preliminary injunctions, according to Mayes.

The other positive effect the state has seen from Mayes’ lawsuits was a savings of $1.2 billion, she added.

Arizona Attorney General @krismayes has sued the Trump administration 25 times just this year. She came in studio to talk to Mike about it, can she change his mind about why she thinks every single suit is needed?

Watch the FULL interview on the @KTAR923 YouTube Channel. pic.twitter.com/up4MuOwhiK

— The Mike Broomhead Show on KTAR News (@BroomheadShow) August 4, 2025

Multistate lawsuits could lead to further court battles

Despite rulings being issued in many of the 25 lawsuits, Mayes believes that there will be many more hearings to come.

This is due to the Trump administration filing appeals in some of the major lawsuits, such as those over the president’s tariffs and an executive order that would end birthright citizenship.

A hearing in the tariffs lawsuit was held last week in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington ended with appellate judges questioning the legal reasoning behind the tariffs.

This left Mayes feeling confident about the future of the case.

“I think we’re going to win that case,” she said.

No matter how long it takes to fully adjudicate the tariff lawsuit, Mayes is motivated to keep going by the people who are being affected in Arizona.

“My job is to protect small businesses and to protect Arizonans and make sure that that funding, which Congress approved, comes to the state of Arizona,” she said.

Mayes expects some of the lawsuits to reach the U.S. Supreme Court after being appealed.

Reasoning for multistate lawsuits against Trump administration

Mayes detailed her reasoning behind the filing or joining of all 25 lawsuits, saying it is about showing the difference between doing the right thing and doing what is permissible.

“Look, if I thought any of those lawsuits and the underlying facts of those lawsuits was permissible, I would stand down,” Mayes said. “He’s the president. He has the right from a policy standpoint to do what I think are terrible things in the right way.”

To illustrate this point, Mayes specifically mentioned the lawsuit her office joined in July over the freezing of more than $100 million in education funding, which was meant to come to schools and programs in Arizona.

The funding, which had been approved by Congress, was withheld on July 1 after the U.S. Department of Education said it needed more time to review federal awards.

That money makes up more than 10% of federal education funding in Arizona and supports student success programs, migrant education, English language grants and other services.

The loss of the funding would have also caused nonprofit programs, such as the YMCA and Boys and Girls Club of America, to close or cut back on staff, according to the Associated Press.

The funds were released in late July, which Mayes viewed as a victory.

“That (funding) was passed by Congress,” Mayes said. “The president, Democratic or Republican, doesn’t have the right to say no, never mind.”

Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne pushed back against the sentiment that this was a victory for Mayes last week.

Are multistate lawsuits politically motivated?

Mayes, a Democrat, pushed back against any idea that politics is playing a role in the 25 lawsuits.

“I promise you, if this was a Democratic president engaging in this level of unlawfulness and violating the Constitution, I would be going after that president too,” Mayes said.

She also defended the sheer number of lawsuits her office has become a part of during the first seven months of Trump’s second term.

“We have a very unusual president,” Mayes said. “We have a president who just doesn’t like to follow the Constitution. I can’t control that. … No president has ever engaged in this kind of unconstitutional behavior.”

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