A Judge Has Already Temporarily Blocked Trump’s Federal Funding Freeze

Nikki McCann Ramirez
·2-min read

U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan has partially blocked the Trump administration from enforcing an order halting the distribution of billions — potentially trillions — in federal funds and grant money to government programs.

AliKhan ordered the administration to “maintain the status quo” until Feb. 3 in regard to the continued funding of “open awards,” but would allow the government to cut funds to new programs or expired ones. The judge also scheduled a hearing on Monday to further review the possibility of granting an temporary restraining order against the directive’s enforcement.

The emergency decision came after President Donald Trump directed the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to halt funding distributions for virtually all federal financial assistance, with limited — and incredibly vague — exemptions for programs giving direct assistance to individuals.

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The rollout of the short-notice directive caused chaos throughout the country. State Medicaid agencies reported outages in reimbursement portals, and assistance programs like Head Start reported subsidiary agencies being cut off from their funding sources.

On Tuesday, a coalition of nonprofits and health groups filed a request for an emergency order to block the implementation of the action. Arguing that Trump and the OMB’s order was “devoid of any legal basis or the barest rationale,” and that it “fails to articulate why the review of existing grant programs that it envisions requires an immediate cessation of all grant programs, notwithstanding the immense disruption that will cause, and why that review could not simply be conducted while existing obligations and disbursements continue as normal.”

A separate lawsuit was filed by a coalition of 23 state attorneys general in opposition to the order, who argued that “the Trump Administration is recklessly disregarding the health, wellbeing and public safety of the people it is supposed to serve.”

Judge AliKhan’s order isn’t even the first time a federal judge has halted one of Trump’s orders, barely a week into his presidency. Last week, U.S. District Judge John Coughenour halted the president’s bid to end birthright citizenship, calling the order “blatantly unconstitutional.”

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