Rhode Island – A nationwide group of 17 state domestic violence and sexual assault coalitions today filed a new lawsuit seeking immediate relief to stop the Trump-Vance administration from imposing unlawful restrictions on grants issued by the Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women (OVW). Please find quotes from both plaintiffs in the case and co-counsel below. Please see the release here.
PLAINTIFFS
Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence (RICADV)
“Without access to this funding, vital programs that keep Rhode Islanders safe and keep our state at the forefront of addressing domestic violence are at risk, including RI’s first Safe Exchange and Supervised Visitation Center for families experiencing domestic violence,” said Lucy Rios, executive director of the Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence (RICADV). “The frameworks that inform our mission and the knowledge and research from our field are also at risk. Domestic violence is unequivocally a public health and social justice issue. We refuse to renounce this understanding that is central to our work. We strive to be as courageous and resilient as the survivors in our communities as we stand up to protect the safety net for victims and infrastructure for prevention that we have been collectively building for nearly 50 years.”
California Partnership to End Domestic Violence
“Instead of discriminating against survivors for their gender identity and immigration status, OVW grants should open the way to safety, healing and services for every one of the millions of Californians looking for help during the most dangerous and traumatic times of their lives”, said Krista Colón, Executive Director of the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence. “With the need for services already far outpacing available resources, programs deserve funding that makes it easier to do their work, not harder. And yet, these grant conditions have stoked fear and uncertainty among advocates, who now run the risk of harsh penalties unless they promise to ignore survivors experiencing abuse. Domestic violence programs should never be threatened with a demand to limit who they serve or otherwise lose government funding. At the Partnership, we are committed to ensuring that healing services reach all survivors, especially those who shoulder daily discrimination.”
Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault
“Since there is no regular state funding for victim services, programs in Colorado have no choice but to sign the certifications and risk unintentionally violating them due to the vague language and conflicts with the VAWA statute,” said Brie Franklin, Executive Director of the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault. “Without federal funds, vital services for victims of sexual assault and domestic violence will cease to exist in our state.”
DC Coalition Against Domestic Violence
“The Violence Against Women Act requires organizations to serve all survivors—regardless of who they are. The DC Coalition Against Domestic Violence is committed to following the statute and ensuring survivors in need have access to the critical, life-saving services that are supported with these funds. We proudly stand firm with our national partners to ensure comprehensive care is available here in the District and in communities across the country,” said Dawn Dalton, Executive Director, DC Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin: The Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence
“Our Movement is about safety and homicide prevention,” said Monique Minkens, Executive Director of End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin: The Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence. “Survivors’ lives are on the line. We are at risk of seeing our movement’s hard-won progress in the fight to end domestic violence reversed. Every setback means more danger, loss, and suffering for victims, families, and communities. But we remain resolute—our commitment is to every survivor’s safety, healing, and freedom. We will continue to meet people where they are, support their liberation, and fight for a future where all are free from violence.”
Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence
“For 40 years, the Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence (ICADV) has worked to ensure survivors across our state — especially those most vulnerable — have access to safety and support,” said Dr. Maria Corona, executive director of Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence. “As a condition of receiving these federal funds, we are now being asked to break the law — forcing us into an impossible position: either accept vague and unlawful grant conditions or lose critical funding that keeps survivors across Iowa safe.”
Jane Doe Inc., the Massachusetts Coalition Against Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence
“For nearly thirty years, funding from the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) has been a lifeline—helping survivors in Massachusetts access safety, healing, and justice,” said Hema Sarang-Sieminski, Executive Director of Jane Doe Inc., the Massachusetts Coalition Against Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence. “These new conditions are not just discriminatory—they are deeply harmful. They seek to turn back the decades of progress made by this field to create effective, inclusive responses to the needs of all survivors. These requirements pave the way for denying life-saving support to immigrant survivors, LGBTQIA+ survivors, survivors with disabilities, unhoused survivors, and many others from communities that are disproportionately targeted by violence. We are proud to join with coalitions from across the country to challenge these unjust conditions and to stand firmly on the side of survivors, the survivor-serving workforce, and justice, safety, and healing for all.”
Kansas Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence
“What many may not know, but what Kansans do, is that we were the birthplace of the People’s Party (1891). The original populist positions were a multiracial, multigender, diverse coalition of people who were trying to ensure the protection of the rights of all people. In that spirit, the Kansas Coalition against Sexual and Domestic Violence (KCSDV) determined that our organization needed to stand for the rights of our organization, the rights of our Members—the programs that work tirelessly to support victims and survivors of domestic and sexual violence, and the rights for all people who need these services in Kansas. President Eisenhower, war hero and Kansan once said, ‘A people that values its privileges above it’s principles soon loses both’. To that end, KCSDV stands by the principles long held by our field. Principles that have had bipartisan support for the more than 40 years since the Violence Against Women Act has been passed,” said Michelle McCormick, Executive Director of the Kansas Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence.
North Carolina Coaliton Against Domestic Violence
“Domestic violence service providers rely on federal funds to help meet the ever-growing needs of domestic violence victims in our state. They need clarity on how they can use the funds, and they need to be able to focus their time on helping people in crisis. As a Coalition, we are seeking the Court’s confirmation that programs can keep using these funds to do what they do best–serving all of their community members seeking help and working in collaboration with law enforcement and other community partners to increase safety and accountability,” said Carianne Fisher, Executive Director of the North Carolina Coaliton Against Domestic Violence.
Oregon Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence
“Oregon’s domestic and sexual violence community-based service organizations are an integral part of the safety net across our state. These organizations strive to meet the needs of the diverse communities — from the pacific coast throughout the mountain ranges — of our vast state. Whether in rural or urban communities, they respond to all victims with the goal of helping them to not only survive but thrive. We know that domestic and sexual violence is prevalent across our nation. People who chose to do harm often target those who are vulnerable or who can be made to seem so, thus marginalized communities are at even greater risk. The certifications that were recently attached to the VAWA grants undermine the safety that these organizations offer by creating barriers to access, impeding direct communication and compromising confidentiality which is the very key to safety. The demands of these new requirements demonstrate not only a disregard for the safety net that has been woven, but a complete ignorance of the dynamics of interpersonal violence,” said Keri Moran-Kuhn, Executive Director, Oregon Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence.
Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence
“We’ve spent decades building bridges across systems and collaborating in bipartisan efforts to end domestic violence and support the most vulnerable people in our communities,” said Susan Higginbotham, Chief Executive Officer of PCADV. “Now, we’re being told that doing so must come at the cost of silencing voices and erasing identities. That’s unacceptable. We have no choice but to raise our voices, together. Domestic violence victims and the programs that serve them will not be silenced.”
ValorUS
“The Trump administration now demands loyalty oaths to its destructive and discriminatory policies. We will not be complicit in our government’s ongoing terror inflicted on survivors. Let’s be clear, VALOR’s loyalty lies with survivors and communities working to end sexual violence,” said Sandra Henriquez, CEO of ValorUS.
Violence Free Minnesota
“As the coalition to end relationship abuse in Minnesota, we believe that domestic violence is a public health issue and a social issue, in addition to a criminal legal system issue. The administration’s decision to place limitations on our ability to practice inclusive racial justice and gender justice work directly contradicts the core values and beliefs of our movement,” said Guadalupe Lopez, Executive Director of Violence Free Minnesota. “Social and cultural change are integral to ending relationship abuse in our state and nation. These limitations seek to change the basis and truth of our movement, and will directly harm survivors and their communities.”
Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance
“These new grant certifications would not only require victim service providers to directly violate federal law, they also demand that providers withhold vital services from community members who are at greater risk of experiencing violence,” said Kristi VanAudenhove, Executive Director of the Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance. “Holding this field’s already very limited funding hostage is unconscionable and it undermines the fundamental right of all survivors to access safety, justice, and healing in the aftermath of violence.”
Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault
“These certifications strike at the very heart of our work to end sexual violence. They would force us to compromise the foundational role of a coalition: to center the voices of all survivors, advocate for systemic change, and the representation of member programs. We refuse to participate in policies that demand we abandon our values and erase the most marginalized survivors—particularly BIPOC, LGBTQ+, immigrant, and disabled communities—who experience disproportionately high rates of sexual violence. Our mission is clear: to create social change to end sexual violence. That cannot happen without a bold, inclusive, and survivor-centered movement” said Amanda Dotson and Kelly Moe Litke, Co-Directors of the Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault.
CO-COUNSEL
Democracy Forward
“By forcing providers to choose between certifying compliance with unlawful conditions or giving up federal funding needed to help keep their communities safe, the Trump administration is holding funding hostage in an effort to force service providers to bend to the administration’s anti-DEI, anti-immigrant, and anti-trans goals,” said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward, which is part of the legal team representing the coalition in the case. “This is unlawful and threatens important programs preventing domestic violence and sexual assault and supporting survivors.”
Jacobson Lawyers Group
“The certification requirements and changes to the types of services Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault service providers can provide are unconstitutional, conflict with the Violence Against Women Act, and will make victims and survivors less safe. We are proud to stand with these domestic violence and sexual assault coalitions standing up for the people they serve.” said Lynn Eisenberg from Jacobson Lawyers Group.
ACLU of Rhode Island
“By requiring organizations and coalitions to attest to certifications that run counter to their very missions, in addition to potentially violating state and federal law, the federal government is prioritizing political ideologies over the funding of critical support for vulnerable people in our communities,” said Steven Brown, Executive Director of the ACLU of Rhode Island. “We stand firm in our challenge to this set of requirements.”
Lawyers’ Committee for Rhode Island
“The certification requirements imposed on domestic violence agencies by the Trump Administration are unlawful, unconstitutional and jeopardize the agencies’ ability to provide essential life-saving services to victims and survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault,” said Amy Romero, Chief Legal Counsel of the Lawyers’ Committee for Rhode Island. “The Lawyers’ Committee for Rhode Island is proud to represent RICADV and coalitions across the country who are standing firm in their organizations’ missions and challenging the Trump Administration’s actions.”