Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown has joined a coalition of 21 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. The brief supports fair housing organizations appealing a ruling that lifted a temporary restraining order, which had blocked the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) from cancelling grant funding.
The Fair Housing Initiative Program (FHIP), created by Congress, provides funding to nonprofit organizations that work to prevent housing discrimination and enforce fair housing laws. In February 2025, HUD cancelled 78 existing FHIP grants across 33 states without prior notice, despite statutory requirements to fund these programs.
In response, 66 nonprofit housing groups sued HUD in the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts. On March 26, the court issued a temporary restraining order to reinstate the funding. However, after the U.S. Supreme Court issued an interim ruling in a separate case, HUD requested the order be lifted. The District Court granted HUD’s request on April 14.
The attorneys general argue that the temporary restraining order should be reinstated, asserting that the plaintiffs are likely to succeed in their case. They claim the loss of funding would disrupt housing discrimination enforcement efforts and negatively affect residents. In Maryland, organizations impacted by the funding cuts include Baltimore Neighborhoods United, Consumer Credit Counseling of Maryland, and the Baltimore City Office of Equity and Civil Rights. Other grantees, such as the Equal Rights Center and the National Fair Housing Alliance, are based in Washington, D.C., but operate in Maryland.
The brief was led by the attorneys general of Massachusetts, New York, and California, and joined by those from Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawai‛i, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.
