The Department of Justice filed complaints on Sept. 10, 2026, against Hawaii, the District of Columbia, Arkansas and Utah, challenging laws and regulations concerning in-state tuition and financial assistance for people who are not lawfully present in the United States. The United States is seeking court orders that would bar the four jurisdictions from enforcing the challenged provisions.
The department alleges that the laws unconstitutionally discriminate against U.S. citizens who do not receive the same reduced tuition rates or scholarships and that the provisions directly conflict with federal law. Those assertions are the Justice Department’s legal position in the complaints and have not been established by the filing of the cases.
According to the department, the challenged rules require colleges and universities to provide in-state tuition to all noncitizens who maintain in-state residency, regardless of whether they are lawfully present. The complaints also target laws and regulations that make financial assistance and scholarships available to people the department describes as illegal aliens.
The four complaints bring the department’s total number of lawsuits challenging such in-state tuition policies to 25. The filings followed a ruling on Sept. 9 by the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas that Kansas’ law allowing in-state tuition for people not lawfully present was unconstitutional, according to the department’s [Sept. 10 announcement](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/department-justice-files-complaints-against-hawaii-dc-arkansas-and-utah-over-preferential).
The Justice Department said six lawsuits involving Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Illinois and Kansas have produced orders permanently enjoining and declaring unconstitutional similar laws that provided reduced tuition. It also identified pending lawsuits involving Minnesota, Virginia, California, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maryland, Colorado, New York, Connecticut, Vermont, Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington.