Chicago, Illinois - Four Democratic-run states on Wednesday filed a lawsuit attempting to block President Donald Trump's administration from cutting $600-million worth of public health funding.

California, Colorado, Illinois, and Minnesota filed a legal complaint in a federal court in Chicago, alleging that President Donald Trump's health cuts are both harmful and unlawful.

According to the lawsuit, the four states have been targeted with "devastating funding cuts to basic public health infrastructure based on political animus and disagreements about unrelated topics."

"The Administration has made numerous attempts to strip funds from programs in states whose policies it disagrees with," the filing reads.

"In early February, OMB issued a [targeting directive] commanding agencies to cut funding to Plaintiff States, starting with more than $600 million in CDC public-health funding."

As a result of the Trump administration's alleged use of "arbitrary political animus" as an excuse for slashing health funding, the states asked the court to declare the cuts unlawful.

In a statement cited by Reuters, a spokesperson for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Department of Health and Human Services said that the grants were terminated because they don't reflect the agency's priorities, not as political retribution.

"President Trump is resorting to a familiar playbook," California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a press release on Wednesday. "He is using federal funding to compel states and jurisdictions to follow his agenda."

"All Americans should be outraged," Bonta continued. "President Trump is not above the law, but he continues to act as if he is."

"My fellow attorneys general and I will not be silenced. We will continue taking him to court any time he takes unlawful actions."