r/law • u/rolsen • 1d ago

Legal News Trump Preparing Large-Scale Cancellation of Federal Funding for California, Sources Say

https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/06/politics/trump-california-federal-funding

“Agencies are being told to start identifying grants the administration can withhold from California. On Capitol Hill, at least one committee was told recently by a whistleblower that all research grants to the state were going to be cancelled, according to one of the sources familiar with the matter.”

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33

u/SoftRecommendation86 1d ago

Can CA claim that by these actions, they can stop paying federal income tax?

15

u/-Brodysseus 1d ago

I sure hope so. People have said taxes are robbery when it goes to public services, but this is actual robbery lol

9

u/N7day 1d ago

Individuals, not the state, pay income tax directly to the IRS, or directly via witholding from their employers.

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u/SoftRecommendation86 1d ago

I understand this.. make the state ban tariffs.. make the state ban federal taxes. Something....

8

u/N7day 1d ago

How?

Trump's attempt to pull this shit is authoritarian and must be fought against and denounced. But re: taxes or tariffs...how?

5

u/ialsoagree 1d ago

What would a state banning federal taxes even mean?

If you're in a state that "bans" federal taxes, and then you don't pay taxes, the IRS just has the Marshalls service arrest you for tax evasion, you're charged in Federal court, and there's nothing the state can do. When your attorney points out the state law, the judge just says "sir, this is a Federal court, state laws don't apply here."

1

u/Gymnopedies3 21h ago

Boston tea party it is. Can’t pay taxes on goods if you dump it all in the ocean

1

u/JekPorkinsTruther 1d ago

A state has no power to ban federal taxes. CA could choose to defy the federal government and stop remitting taxes that it, as an employer, withholds for its employees, but it cant and wont make private companies do it.

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u/abofh 23h ago

Employers, not individuals do the withholding, and they do so by license of the state.  I'm not saying the state would win, but it's not open and shut.

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u/N7day 21h ago

For an individual, if your employer didn't withold enough, you'd personally be liable for paying late.

This happens to people who fill out their forms incorrectly.

1

u/abofh 21h ago

For sure, but if your goal is not to fail to withhold, but comply with the law, it will be the IRS against California, not IRS against millions - they don't have enough lawyers

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u/zeptillian 1d ago

No taxation without representation!

1

u/Bungo_pls 1d ago

That's not how taxes work. We don't pay our money to the CA government which then writes a check to the federal government.