Rhode Island Latino Arts v. National Endowment for the Arts

On January 20, 2025, President Trump issued Executive Order 14168, titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.” Following the Order, the NEA, a federal agency that provides grants to arts organizations nationwide, imposed a new requirement on grant applicants to certify that they will not use federal funds to “promote gender ideology.” As a result, any application that appears to “promote” what the government deems to be “gender ideology” cannot receive funding, and any funded project cannot “promote” such ideas or messages.

In this case, the ACLU represents several arts organizations that are affected by the NEA’s “gender ideology” prohibition. The prohibition has led these organizations to alter the scope of their artistic projects—many of which involve transgender characters, cast transgender or nonbinary actors, and otherwise celebrate and affirm transgender and nonbinary people—or to be barred from NEA funding altogether.

The ACLU has filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island. The lawsuit asserts that the NEA’s “gender ideology” prohibition is unconstitutional under the First and Fifth Amendments and violates the NEA’s governing statute, and asks the court to enjoin the “gender ideology” prohibition and order the NEA to refrain from implementing or giving effect to Executive Order 14168.