The Standing Record

A daily, non-partisan record of US democratic norms — and the events that erode them.

Trump directed DOJ to sue states over AI laws and threatened to withhold federal funds, bypassing Congress on AI regulation

On December 11, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14365, "Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence," directing the Justice Department to establish an AI Litigation Task Force to sue states over AI laws the administration considers excessive. The order also instructs the Commerce Department to identify conflicting state laws and to condition states' access to federal broadband (BEAD) funds on compliance, and directs all federal agencies to weigh conditioning discretionary grants on states not enacting conflicting AI legislation — achieving through executive action what Congress had not enacted.

Jurisdiction
federal
Location
Washington, D.C.

Abuses documented

Actors

On December 11, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14365, titled "Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence" (released by the White House under the heading "Eliminating State Law Obstruction of National Artificial Intelligence Policy"). The order stated that "excessive State regulation thwarts" U.S. AI dominance and directed the executive branch to act against state AI laws the administration deemed onerous — despite the absence of any federal statute preempting those laws.

The order directed the Attorney General to establish a DOJ "AI Litigation Task Force" within 30 days to identify and challenge state AI laws in court. It directed the Commerce Department to identify state AI statutes that conflict with the administration's policy and to condition states' access to federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program funds on compliance. It further directed all federal agencies to consider conditioning their discretionary grants on states not enacting or enforcing AI laws that conflict with the order's policy.

Congress had repeatedly declined to enact a federal moratorium on state AI regulation, including a provision that would have done so in the FY2025 budget reconciliation process. The executive order, by deploying DOJ litigation and federal funding leverage to achieve the same outcome, effectively used presidential and agency power to preempt state legislation without congressional authorization — raising separation-of-powers concerns about the use of the spending power and executive litigation to substitute for legislation Congress had not passed.

Why we recorded this

The U.S. Constitution reserves to Congress the power to regulate interstate and foreign commerce, and federal preemption of state law must itself be enacted by Congress through the legislative process. On December 11, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14365, directing the Justice Department to sue states over AI statutes the administration deemed excessive and ordering federal agencies to condition discretionary grants on states not enacting conflicting AI legislation — accomplishing by executive fiat and funding coercion what Congress had repeatedly declined to enact as a federal moratorium on state AI regulation. We record this because it uses presidential power to override state legislative authority and bypass Congress on a question of commercial regulation Congress had not resolved.

Sources

  1. Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence (Executive Order 14365) — White House primary accessed June 17, 2026
  2. White House Issues Executive Order to Promote National AI Policy Framework and Challenge Certain State AI Laws — Wiley Rein LLP secondary accessed June 17, 2026
  3. Executive Order 14365 — Wikipedia secondary accessed June 17, 2026
  4. Unpacking the December 11, 2025 Executive Order — Sidley Austin LLP secondary accessed June 17, 2026

See also