The Justice Department sued Maryland on July 9 to block a state law barring local officers from asking about immigration status or holding people for federal pickup without a warrant.Maryland is now one of more than 20 cities, counties, and states the department has sued since January 2025, a tally that reached 27 lawsuits this month, according to Justice Department litigation records reported by Stateline on July 17. Six of those suits, against Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, a Michigan county, and Philadelphia, were filed in the past three months alone. Not one of the sued jurisdictions has told their own taxpayers, in a document any of them would actually read, what losing costs.I’ve spent 30 years underwriting credit risk for institutional and family-office portfolios, including municipal exposure, and I’ve testified as an expert witness in securities and fiduciary litigation. In that world, a contingent liability this size gets a number and a footnote before it gets a press release. A city that borrows money is required to tell its bondholders about material risks to the revenue that repays the debt. A city fighting the Justice Department over immigration cooperation, with federal grant dollars sitting in the crossfire, has a material risk. Elected officials who litigate the policy without disclosing the exposure are treating a fiduciary obligation as optional.