A federal judge in the District of Rhode Island on Wednesday said he would soon issue a temporary restraining order to block Trump administration executive orders that could defund federal programs that do not align with President Trump’s ideological agenda.
Before the hearing, the Trump administration had rescinded a memo from the White House budget office that ordered a freeze on as much as $3 trillion in federal funds. That memo had already been blocked through Monday by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday.
But in Rhode Island, Judge James McConnell Jr. indicated he was not satisfied, siding with lawyers for 22 states and the District of Columbia who filed the suit, which claimed that the harm caused by Mr. Trump’s defunding efforts was continuing.
“I’m worried about the effect to the people that the states represent,” Judge McConnell said, citing declarations from state officials that reported on billions of dollars being jeopardized and states locked out of systems that provide reimbursements for Medicaid and other government programs. An official from New Mexico said the state would run out of cash in five months if the funding freeze continued.
Daniel Schwei, a Justice Department lawyer, maintained that because the memo was no longer in force, a restraining order wasn’t necessary.
But Judge McConnell, who was nominated by President Barack Obama, disagreed. He asked the states to draft a new temporary restraining order and said he would sign an order once the Justice Department had had 24 hours to respond.
The Justice Department seemed to be at cross purposes with the White House as Mr. Schwei urged the judge to let the matter rest. During the hearing, the states introduced into evidence a social media post by the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, in which she claimed the motion rescinding the Office of Management and Budget memo was “NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze.”
“It is simply a rescission of the OMB memo,” she wrote.
“We can’t cross-examine the tweet,” the judge joked.
Indeed, the seven executive orders prohibiting federal money from being spent in ways that flout Mr. Trump’s ideological priorities, “unless required by law,” are still in force, and they are likely to be the focus of litigation over whether the executive branch has the power to interfere with spending that has already been appropriated or authorized by Congress.
In their lawsuit, the 22 states argued that such interference violates federal law and the Constitution. Sarah Rice, from the Rhode Island attorney general’s office, characterized the Trump administration’s approach as “freeze first, ask questions later.”
“The breadth of the relief that plaintiffs are seeking is extraordinary,” argued Mr. Schwei.
Judge McConnell responded, “So is the breadth of the O.M.B. directive, Mr. Schwei.”
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