A federal judge in the District of Columbia on Tuesday temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s effort 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 lawsuit filed by the activist group Democracy Forward. The group argued that the order, issued by the White House Office of Management and Budget, violated the First Amendment and the Administrative Procedure Act, a law that governs the executive branch’s rule-making authorities. The judge said she would render a more permanent decision on Feb. 3.
The suit was separate from another case filed in Providence, R.I., after the ruling by attorneys general from 22 states and the District of Columbia, which also seeks to thwart Mr. Trump’s effort to freeze funding pending his administration’s review of whether the spending comported with his priorities.
Skye Perryman, Democracy Forward’s president and chief executive, praised the initial ruling. “We are grateful for this administrative stay to allow our clients time to sort through the chaos created by the Trump administration’s hasty and ill-advised actions” she said in a statement.
The White House press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This ruling marks the second time a federal judge has stepped in to halt President Trump’s expansive interpretation of his authority, allowing legal challenges to proceed. On Thursday, Judge John C. Coughenour of the Western District of Washington issued a temporary restraining order blocking Trump’s attempt to end automatic citizenship for babies born on American soil.
The funding freeze, announced Monday night in a two-page memo from Matthew J. Vaeth, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, instructed federal agencies to “pause all activities related to the obligation or disbursement of federal financial assistance.” The memo specifically cited concerns over “D.E.I., woke gender ideology, and the Green New Deal.” The directive’s vague wording threw state agencies, city governments, and nonprofit organizations into disarray.
Judge AliKhan’s ruling came as disruptions to federal funding sparked chaos nationwide. State health agencies reported being locked out of Medicaid reimbursement portals, while officials warned that funding for preschools, community health centers, food for low-income families, housing assistance, and disaster relief was at risk. Universities began freezing new research grants.
Facing mounting pressure—even from Republican-led states—the White House and its budget office sought to downplay the order’s scope on Tuesday afternoon. They clarified that the funding pause was not “across-the-board” but limited to programs tied to the president’s executive orders, including those targeting D.E.I. initiatives and nongovernmental organizations “undermining the national interest.”
A follow-up Q&A document from the budget office assured that “mandatory programs like Medicaid” would “continue without pause.”
