Are there any active lawsuits against trump?
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Executive summary
Yes — dozens to hundreds of lawsuits remain active that involve Donald Trump, but the meaning of “active” depends on category: there are large, ongoing fleets of cases challenging actions of the Trump administration; a smaller but significant set of civil suits that seek to hold Trump personally accountable (including Jan. 6-related litigation and long-running state civil actions); and litigated moves by Trump where he is the plaintiff, such as a high-dollar defamation suit against the BBC [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. Active mass litigation challenging the administration’s actions — a litigation ecosystem
Specialized trackers maintained by Lawfare and Just Security document an ongoing, broad campaign of litigation that targets executive orders and agency actions from the Trump administration, with Lawfare reporting roughly 253 active cases challenging administration actions and Just Security maintaining a separate tracker focused on challenges to executive actions [1] [2]. Those projects count suits differently (for example, appeals may be folded into a single case), but they make clear that the administration’s policy initiatives have produced hundreds of live legal disputes in district courts and appellate dockets across the country [1] [2].
2. Civil lawsuits against Trump personally — still moving in the courts
High-profile civil suits that name Trump individually continue to proceed in various forms: Roll Call reports that Democratic members of Congress and Capitol Police officers remain litigating civil claims tied to Jan. 6 against Trump, framing those suits as among the last civil avenues to seek accountability after criminal channels were altered by Supreme Court rulings and prosecutorial developments [3]. Separately, legacy civil actions — such as the New York attorney general’s fraud suit tied to Trump’s business practices — have persisted through phases of rulings and appeals, and remain visible in national trackers that catalog civil and criminal matters involving Trump [5] [6].
3. Criminal matters versus civil and administrative suits — different paces and endpoints
Reporting compiled by AP and other outlets stresses the distinction between criminal indictments and civil/administrative litigation: since Trump’s reelection some criminal cases were dropped, resolved or set aside, while civil and administrative lawsuits have quietly continued through appeals and injunctions [6] [5]. That dynamic means counting “active” matters requires disaggregating criminal indictments (where there may be pauses or dismissals) from the ongoing civil and administrative caseload that confronts the presidency and the administration’s policies [6] [5].
4. Trump as plaintiff — offensive litigation continues too
Trump is not only a defendant; he and his legal team have pursued litigation against media outlets and others, exemplified by a reported $10 billion lawsuit filed against the BBC over a Panorama documentary alleging edited Jan. 6 remarks — an example of Trump initiating high-profile suits that are active in their own right [4]. Such filings complicate any simple tally of “lawsuits against Trump,” because the legal landscape includes both suits brought against him and suits he brings.
5. Courts are deciding policy as much as personalities — appellate rulings matter
Recent appellate decisions underscore that many disputes are being litigated at the federal appeals level, where courts have blocked or upheld aspects of administration policy — for example, an appeals court recently upheld a prohibition on cuts to NIH grant funding sought by the administration — demonstrating that litigation frequently targets policy implementation as much as individual liability [7]. Organizations ranging from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund to union groups and state coalitions have filed or joined suits challenging executive orders on issues from voting to federal hiring and health funding, underscoring sustained legal resistance to policy changes [8] [9].
6. How to interpret “active” — trackers, definitions, and dispute counts
Different trackers use different counting methods: Lawfare’s number aggregates many suits challenging administration actions into a broader total, Just Security limits its tracker to executive-action challenges and does not count cases where the administration is the plaintiff, and advocacy groups publish win-loss tallies that reflect their own litigation portfolios [1] [2] [10]. The practical takeaway: there is a large, multi-front litigation posture involving Trump — active administrative challenges measured in the hundreds, a smaller but persistent set of civil suits directly against him, and ongoing offensive litigation by Trump himself [1] [2] [3] [4].