Which Trump cases are still active versus resolved?
Executive summary
As of early January 2026, hundreds of civil and constitutional challenges to actions taken by President Trump’s administration remain active across district courts, appeals courts and the Supreme Court, while a smaller but politically consequential set of criminal and state prosecutions brought against Trump before his reelection have been dropped, resolved, or paused; trackers from Lawfare and Just Security document large active caseloads in the lower courts while reporting on several high-profile resolutions in state criminal matters [1] [2] [3].
1. Active federal civil and administrative litigation: volume and hotspots
Legal trackers and advocacy outlets show a sprawling docket challenging executive actions: Lawfare counts roughly 253 active cases challenging Trump administration actions as distinct matters in district and appellate courts [1], while other analyses cite even larger aggregates—368 active lower‑court challenges in one tally and 149 injunctions blocking executive actions in another—illustrating variance in counting methodology but consensus on scale [4]. Many of these cases cluster around immigration enforcement, federal workforce actions, tariffs and federal agency authority, with California litigants especially active and several key hearings scheduled for early 2026 [5] [6].
2. Supreme Court dockets that remain live and consequential
The Supreme Court has granted and will decide major questions affecting Trump’s agenda: the legality of his sweeping tariffs under a 1977 emergency statute, the removal of a Federal Reserve governor, and limits on nationwide injunctions, among others—many of which were teed up after the Court issued favorable rulings in 2025 but require further resolution in 2026 [7] [8] [9]. Those cases are active and dispositive: a ruling can reverse or cement lower‑court restraints and has already produced important wins for the administration in 2025 while keeping multiple issues alive for 2026 [7] [9].
3. Criminal cases: what’s resolved, what remains
Reporting indicates a notable retrenchment in several criminal matters that had targeted Trump before his return to the presidency: since his reelection, four criminal cases including the hush‑money conviction and certain allegations tied to election interference and classified documents were either dropped, resolved, or put aside, and the Georgia election‑interference indictment was dismissed after a successor prosecutor declined to pursue charges [3]. This outcome reflects prosecutorial discretion and post‑election legal change rather than courtroom acquittals, and it underscores that many high‑profile criminal pathways have been curtailed or transferred rather than litigated to final verdicts [3].
4. Enforcement fights and procedural skirmishes that keep matters alive
Even where criminal prosecutions were dropped or paused, procedural battles continue: federal judges and appellate panels have repeatedly been asked to enforce or stay injunctions against immigration raids, subpoena fights over state voter files and agency funding disputes, and the Justice Department’s litigation strategies—including delaying tactics tied to foreign prosecutions and expansive use of litigation resources—have protracted many cases into 2026 [5] [10] [11]. Advocacy outlets frame these as an ongoing “lawfare” campaign while state governments like California push back with their own suits, signaling long‑term litigation warfare rather than neat resolutions [12] [5].
5. How to read the numbers and the agendas behind them
Trackers differ because they use different counting rules—Lawfare treats a district suit and its appeals as one case, other sources count injunctions or appeals separately—so headline totals (253, 368, 149, etc.) reflect methodology as much as legal reality [1] [4]. Sources also carry implicit agendas: watchdog trackers emphasize plaintiff wins and injunctions to highlight checks on executive power [2] [1], while advocacy sites warn of an administrative “revenge tour” to mobilize opposition [12]. The reporting reliably shows a large, active body of litigation in the federal courts, several Supreme Court disputes pending, and a parallel narrowing of some pre‑election criminal cases — but it does not provide a single, definitive tally because the landscape is fluid and categorizations differ across trackers [2] [1] [3].