Atlanta quietly joins fight against the Trump administration’s anti-DEI push
The city of Atlanta has quietly joined a lawsuit seeking to fight the Trump administration’s efforts to withhold funding from municipalities because of their diversity, equity and inclusion programs, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has learned.
In February, the city banded with more than a dozen other cities and counties to become additional plaintiffs in an existing lawsuit filed last summer by a group led by Fresno, California.
The lawsuit, Fresno v. Turner, is one of several filed by municipalities and authorities over the last year against federal agencies and their leaders, including Scott Turner, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
At issue is a set of new grant terms instituted by President Donald Trump and his administration that require all entities receiving federal funding, including municipal governments, to participate in immigration enforcement and eliminate DEI initiatives requirements.
The terms follow executive orders early last year seeking to purge affirmative action or diversity initiatives from the federal government and federal funding recipients, including state and local governments.
Last summer Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport lost millions of dollars in Federal Aviation Administration funding after the city-owned airport’s leader refused to sign the new terms, the AJC reported.
Atlanta and the other new Fresno v. Turner plaintiffs have asked a federal judge to temporarily prohibit the agencies from enforcing these terms as the case proceeds.
The judge already granted a preliminary injunction for the first batch of plaintiffs in September. A hearing on Atlanta’s motion is set for Thursday.
The federal government has asked the judge to either dismiss or transfer the Fresno case’s claims to another court. In a prior filing, it argued what plaintiffs are asking for “is not how federal grants law … works.”
In response to questions about the suit, a city of Atlanta spokesperson said it does not comment on ongoing litigation. The spokesperson did not respond to a follow-up asking if the city has been receiving its anticipated federal funding in the last year.
In the amended complaint filed in February, Atlanta stated it “relies on many millions of dollars in federal funding,” including anticipating nearly $25 million for housing, $68 million in transportation grants, nearly $49 million from the FAA and $2.4 million from the Environmental Protection Agency.
Atlanta depended on an estimated $1.4 billion in federal funding last year alone, according to a city document reviewed by the AJC.
‘A vital piece of the financial puzzle’
After refusing to sign last summer, Hartsfield-Jackson lost nearly $40 million in FAA funding for restroom rehabilitation, taxiway pavement replacement, grants related to sustainability and lowering emissions and other projects.
A few months later, however, the city quietly passed legislation to rebrand its diversity, equity and inclusion office as the “Office of One Atlanta.” A spokesperson said nothing would change about its Equal Business Opportunity program, a long-standing minority business contracting program.
It appears Atlanta has continued to receive some other federal funds.
The Atlanta Housing Authority — which relies almost entirely on federal funding — told the AJC it has not lost any federal funding nor had any funding delayed or withheld since January 2025.
But for the airport, last summer’s loss meant the diversion of resources as well as the deferral of several construction projects, including taxiway pavement replacement, General Manager Ricky Smith wrote in a declaration filed as part of the federal litigation.
The airport has 14 active federal grants totaling more than $232 million, he said.
And Smith said he is continuing to seek further federal funding.
In November, he signed preapplication agreements for nearly $50 million for fiscal year 2026, the vast majority of which would go to the reconstruction of one of the airport’s runways and “aging and distressed runway and taxiway pavement.”
“While it is certainly correct that federal funding is not the Airport’s only source of revenue, it is nonetheless a vital piece of the financial puzzle,” he wrote.
Then there is the largest federal grant in Atlanta Beltline history, a $25 million Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity grant from the federal Department of Transportation for the northeast trail awarded in June 2023.
Clyde Higgs, president and CEO of Atlanta Beltline Inc., told the AJC in a statement the agency has received past RAISE funding since January 2025 for segments of the Southside trail.
He confirmed the federal agreement has been executed for an upcoming northeast segment and the agency is seeking construction bids, but funding will come via reimbursement after eligible costs have been incurred, he said.
Solomon Caviness, the commissioner of Atlanta’s Department of Transportation, wrote in a court filing that this Beltline construction is one example of the more than $68 million in federal grants his department has or will receive that “may now be subject to the revised Terms and Conditions.”
“The City of Atlanta is unable and unwilling to agree” to those anti-DEI and immigration enforcement terms and conditions, he wrote.
Trump has called DEI initiatives “wasteful” and discriminatory.
“Americans deserve a government committed to serving every person with equal dignity and respect, and to expending precious taxpayer resources only on making America great,” he wrote in a January 2025 executive order.
But for Atlanta, Trump’s efforts are particularly salient.
Many argue that the city’s status as a hotbed for minority-owned business is rooted in its groundbreaking minority contracting program established in the 1970s that later inspired similar federal programs.
In the last six months, an unprecedented group of former Atlanta mayors came together as the “Soul of Atlanta Coalition” to publicly speak out about the importance of the minority and disadvantaged business programs under attack.
Jabari Simama, former Atlanta city councilman and co-convener of the coalition, told the AJC in a statement he is “encouraged that Atlanta is standing up to defend its nationally recognized business opportunity program.”
“By joining this suit, the city is taking an important step to safeguard both the program’s integrity and its funding — both of which have faced increasing challenges in recent years.”
About the Authors
As a business reporter, Emma Hurt leads coverage of the Atlanta airport, Delta Air Lines, UPS, Norfolk Southern and other travel and logistics companies. Prior to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution she worked as an editor and Atlanta reporter for Axios, a politics reporter for WABE News and a business reporter for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Mirtha Donastorg is a reporter on The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s business team focusing on Black wealth, entrepreneurship, and minority-owned businesses as well as innovation at Atlanta’s HBCUs.
