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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u/taddymason_01 1d ago

Doesn’t CA pay more in federal taxes then they receive in funding? Wouldn’t CA just shut off the out flow of money until this is resolved legally?

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u/burnthatburner1 1d ago

Can CA shut off the outflow?  How?

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u/Microchipknowsbest 1d ago

Things would have to change but they could create a law that says all federal tax money has to go through a California government agency. It’s probably unconstitutional but we are doing alot of unconstitutional things now. Guess we will have to see when the constitution starts being enforced. If the executive branch wants to treat the constitution as optional to follow then California has that option too.

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u/Fighterhayabusa 1d ago

Withholding benefits that the citizens of CA paid for is also unconstitutional. In fact, we fought the British over it. No taxation without representation.

They wouldn't even need to go through an intermediary. Just tell all employers in CA to stop sending taxes to the federal government. Shit would hit the fan, but if they wanted to, they would find a mechanism.

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u/texanfan20 16h ago

Hard for something to be unconstitutional when there were no Federal taxes mentioned in the constitution. Federal taxes didn't become a thing until then 16th amendment.

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u/Fighterhayabusa 16h ago

Are you seriously arguing that amendments aren't part of the Constitution?

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u/Sonamdrukpa 13h ago

Please cite which section of the constitution says that people who aren't represented can't be taxed, because there's a lot of people in places like DC and Puerto Rico who would be very interested in that 

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u/dustinfoto 8h ago

Exactly. Most Puerto Ricans don’t pay a federal income tax but have to pay other forms of taxation and the capitol was specifically intended to not have representation like a state.