Black Church Edict, Lawsuits Surface After Trump Sworn-In

By Rosaland Tyler
Associate Editor
New Journal and Guide

A Black church edict, multiple lawsuits and a Congressional Resolution have been filed since President Donald Trump assumed office on Jan. 20 and announced multiple executive orders.

About 20 Black ministers recently released “A Credo to Legatees of the Black Church Tradition.” The credo, as it is called, is a statement of the beliefs or aims which guide someone’s actions. The recent credo from a group of Black pastors urges college-eligible Black students “to consider attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities where possible and exhorts African-Americans to rediscover the faith that sustained their ancestors through centuries of slavery and subsequent oppression.”

Modeled after the credo that  W.E.B. Du Bois wrote in 1904, the 2025 document states, “Our Credo is not a reaction to Project 2025. Instead, it is an ethical response to white Christian Nationalism.”

The credo was written by Black pastors from multi-denominational churches in several cities including Chicago, Cleveland and Phoenix.

“We legatees believe Project 2025 is an attempt to protect the nation’s white mythology,” the group of Black pastors wrote. “It is an effort to maintain the nation’s sanitized and homogenized collective memory.  It is a scheme to disremember the nation’s unreconciled hegemonic past – and its laws, policies, and procedures that have inflicted unreconciled pain upon Black people for more than 400 years.”

Meanwhile, a recent Congressional Resolution condemned Trump for pardoning Jan. 6 defendants who assaulted Capitol Police officers.

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Senate Democrats wrote and signed the one-line resolution: “The Senate disapproves of any pardons for individuals who were found guilty of assaulting Capitol Police officers.” All 47 members of the Senate Democratic Caucus co-sponsored the resolution. The resolution was introduced a week after Trump pardoned nearly all of the roughly 1,600 people charged in connection with the riot.

He commuted the sentences of about a dozen others who did not receive pardons.

According to Newsweek, “Three lawsuits were filed against Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in Washington, D.C. within minutes of Trump being sworn in. All three accuse the department which is headed by billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk of violating the Federal Advisory Committee Act, a 1972 law that requires federal advisory committees to follow certain transparency rules.

According to Newsweek, “The first, brought by the left-leaning group Democracy Forward, was filed at 12:01 p.m. ET on Monday and accused Elon Musk’s DOGE of being a “shadow operation led by unelected billionaires” that flouts federal transparency rules.”

Newsweek said the second lawsuit against DOGE was brought by the public-interest firm National Security Counselors and names Trump, Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who was previously tapped to lead the department but withdrew just before Trump was inaugurated, as defendants. The lawsuit argues DOGE meets the requirements to be a federal advisory committee and is therefore legally required to have “fairly balanced” representation, keep regular minutes of meetings and allow public access to meetings.”

According to Newsweek, “The third lawsuit was led by the left-wing think tank Public Citizen and alleges that DOGE members “do not represent the interests of everyday Americans.”

Reuter’s, meanwhile, recently listed several legal complaints that have been filed against Trump. All of the lawsuits seek to block his plans.

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One recent complaint involved federal spending. A federal judge in Washington D.C. recently issued an emergency pause to a sweeping Trump administration directive freezing federal grants, loans and other financial assistance pending a review to ensure they align with the president’s priorities, at the request of non-profits who said it would be devastating to their operations.

Democratic state attorneys general and civil rights groups have filed at least five lawsuits challenging Trump’s executive order curtailing the right to automatic birthright citizenship in the U.S., which was paused by a judge on Jan. 23. U.S. District Judge John Coughenour found the order “blatantly” violated the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and granted a request by Democrat-led Washington, Arizona, Illinois and Oregon to block it while their legal challenge proceeds. Four similar lawsuits have been combined with that case in Washington federal court, and a hearing is scheduled for Feb. 6.