Judge Finds Trump Administration Violated Order Blocking Funding Freeze

U.S. District Chief Judge John McConnell Jr. of Rhode Island ordered federal agencies to restore funding that continues to be frozen.

A federal judge on Monday ordered the Trump administration to thaw any remnants of a grant-funding freeze, finding that federal agencies have violated the court's "clear and unambiguous" temporary restraining order.

U.S. District Chief Judge John McConnell Jr. of the District of Rhode Island granted an emergency enforcement order sought Feb. 7 by attorneys general from 22 states and the District of Columbia. The attorneys general had submitted evidence that, despite the restraining order McConnell issued last month, federal agencies are still withholding funds from certain grant recipients.

"The Defendants now plea that they are just trying to root out fraud," McConnell wrote. "But the freezes in effect now were a result of the broad categorical order, not a specific finding of possible fraud. The broad categorical and sweeping freeze of federal funds is, as the Court found, likely unconstitutional and has caused and continues to cause irreparable harm to a vast portion of this country. These pauses in funding violate the plain text of the TRO."

McConnell said agencies can petition for targeted relief from the TRO if they can show they have specific legal authority to pause funding. But his order Monday also quoted from the 1975 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Maness v. Meyers: "Persons who make private determinations of the law and refuse to obey an order generally risk criminal contempt even if the order is ultimately ruled incorrect."

McConnell ordered federal agencies to "immediately restore withheld funds, including those federal funds appropriated in the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Improvement and Jobs Act," two funding sources the plaintiff-states cited as still frozen in their motion for emergency enforcement.

Three weeks into the Trump administration, Democratic attorneys general have now secured court orders temporarily blocking the president's executive actions on federal funding and birthright citizenship. Early Saturday, U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer of the Southern District of New York granted 19 state attorneys general's motion for a temporary restraining order blocking Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency from accessing U.S. Treasury Department payment systems.

"In every case we’ve filed to date, state attorneys general have successfully restrained the president’s abuse of executive power—and we will continue to hold him accountable; our democratic institutions depend on it," California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a prepared statement.
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On Monday, 22 attorneys general sued the National Institutes of Health to block the Trump administration from capping reimbursements to research institutions. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.