Federal judge blocks Trump’s freezing of federal grant funds

A federal judge in the District of Columbia on Tuesday blocked the Trump Administration’s efforts to freeze as much as $ 3 trillion in federal grants and loans, siding for now with activists who said the order was illegal.

Judge Loren Alikhan’s decision came in response to a trial Archived by the activist group democracy forward. The group claimed that the order issued by the White House Office of Management and Budget violated the first amendment and the law of administrative procedures, a law that governs the executive branch’s rule production authorities. The judge said she would make a more permanent decision on February 3rd.

The case was separated from another case filed in Providence, RI, following the decision of the lawyer’s general from 22 states and the District of Columbia, which also tries to avert Mr. Trump’s efforts to freeze funding pending his administration his priorities.

Skye Perryman, Democracy Forwards President and CEO, praised the original decision. “We are grateful for this administrative stay to give our clients time to sort through the chaos created by the rushed and poorly advised actions of the Trump administration,” she said in a statement.

The press office in the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This decision marks the second time that a federal judge has intervened to pause Trump’s expansive interpretation of his own powers to continue a legal challenge. On Thursday, Judge John C. Coughenour from the Western District in Washington issued a temporary restriction order that blocked an attempt from Trump to end automatic citizenship for babies born on American soil.

The Financing Frysen, which was announced on Monday night in a two-page memo from Matthew J. Vaeth, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, imposes federal agency, “citifikly with reference to” dei, woke up gender ideology and the green new agreement. “The importance of the directive was unclear and they threw state agencies, city government and nonprofit organizations in confusion.

Judge Allighan’s stay came when access to federal money for large and large programs was interrupted, causing chaos across the country. State health agencies said they had been locked out of their Medicaid refund portals. State officials said that funding for kindergartens, health centers in society, food for low -income families, housing help and disaster relief was at risk. Universities freeze new research grants.

With even Republican States asking for guidance, the White House and its budget office on Tuesday afternoon tried to call back to the perception of the order of the order and said that the financing break “did not use across the table” and were limited to programs implicated by the president’s Exercising orders, including those on the DEI efforts and funding for non -state organizations, “which undermines national interest.”

A question-and-response document released by the budget office as follow-up said “Mandatory programs like Medicaid” would “continue without pause.”