FiLE - Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield announced the state was joining a lawsuit against the Trump administration over attempts to withhold VOCA funding from sanctuary states, in Portland, Ore., on Aug. 18, 2025.
Holly Bartholomew / OPB
Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield has spent much of his first year in office taking the Trump administration to court.
Rayfield and attorneys with the Oregon Department of Justice have sued the federal government 53 times over 52 weeks, leading 10 of those cases. The lawsuits have involved tariffs, birthright citizenship, federal food assistance and more.
“In a lot of these cases, the federal government has waved the white flag,” said Rayfield, who previously served as the speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives.
Rayfield’s comments on OPB’s “Think Out Loud” came ahead of a planned event with four other attorneys general in Portland on Wednesday evening. He’ll be joined for the “Federal Oversight and Accountability Town Hall” at Revolution Hall in southeast Portland by Democratic colleagues from California, Hawaii, Maine and Minnesota.
“This town hall is a chance to hear directly from us about the work we’ve done, and what we will keep doing to protect Oregon and states across the country,” Rayfield said in a statement.
Related: Oregon AG, county prosecutors warn federal officers that excessive force will be investigated
The event comes on the heels of multiple high-profile cases, including Trump’s attempts to deploy the National Guard to Portland and the most recent investigation into a shooting of two people by U.S. Border Patrol.
Rayfield largely dodged a question about whether federal authorities have provided the state with needed information about the shooting, saying: “That is an ongoing investigation and on multiple law enforcement fronts.”
“We’re in our evidence gathering phase,” said Rayfield. “And we are hopeful, and I remain hopeful, that when we are done we will have all of the information available here at the Oregon Department of Justice to be able to make — to be able to come to conclusions at the end of this.”
Rayfield is among the Democratic attorneys general who have been repeatedly locked in court fights with the president. That includes Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who criticized the administration in the wake of a fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good by a federal immigration agent.
On Tuesday, federal prosecutors subpoenaed Ellison, who called it an attempt at intimidation. Asked about the administration’s move, Rayfield said: “I have not seen any of the details, and so I cannot comment on whether those subpoenas were needed for some investigation that I’m not aware of.”
However, he said the Trump administration was “not above” politicizing the criminal justice system, adding: “That is my number one concern.”
“The moment we continue this and continue to normalize it — that is an incredibly dangerous path to be on as a country."
