California joined several other states Friday in suing the Trump administration over its demand that public schools eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives or risk losing federal funding — expanding its defiance in a standoff with high stakes for students across the state.

The lawsuit from California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta and other state attorneys general came one day after a Trump administration deadline for state officials to collect certifications from every school district in the nation confirming that all DEI efforts had been eliminated, on the argument that such DEI initiatives amount to illegal discrimination.

And it comes two weeks after the California Department of Education defended the legality of DEI efforts in a letter to school district superintendents.

Bonta similarly defended the legality of diversity initiatives in announcing the lawsuit Friday.

“The U.S. Department of Education is unapologetically abandoning its mission to ensure equal access to education with its latest threat to wholesale terminate congressionally mandated federal education funding,” Bonta said in a statement.

“Let me be clear: The federal Department of Education is not trying to ‘combat’ discrimination with this latest order. Instead it is using our nation’s foundational civil rights law as a pretext to coerce states into abandoning efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion through lawful programs and policies.”

Bonta, whose office has now sued the current Trump administration 15 times, said President Trump had “once again … exceeded his authority under the Constitution and violated the law.”

Joining California in the lawsuit were the attorneys general of Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota and New York.

This article will be updated.