A federal judge in Maryland blocked the Trump administration from abandoning a planned move for the F.B.I. from its crumbling headquarters in Washington to a new facility in Prince George’s County, Md.
In a 47-page ruling, Judge Theodore Chuang of the Federal District Court in Maryland wrote that “the F.B.I. erroneously concluded” that it could select a new headquarters for itself without consulting Congress.
In reality, Judge Chuang wrote, Congress had already approved the Biden administration plan for the F.B.I. to move to Maryland. Congress had not signed off on the Trump administration’s decision to end that plan and instead move the agency to the Ronald Reagan Building in downtown Washington — a building that was recently vacated by the U.S. Agency for International Development.
“The Court therefore does not find that Congress has ratified either the Reagan Building Selection Decision or the F.B.I. Reprogramming Decision, or that it has impliedly repealed” the previous plan to move the F.B.I. headquarters to Maryland.
The ruling is almost certainly not the end of the lengthy dispute over the F.B.I.’s future headquarters. Presidents, lawmakers and agency officials have for years jockeyed over the effort to relocate the country’s premier law enforcement agency.
In the meantime, the F.B.I. continues to operate from its old headquarters, an aging colossus veiled in netting to keep concrete from falling on passers-by.
Maryland state officials cheered the ruling, which blocked the Trump administration from diverting about $1 billion to be spent on a sprawling campus near the Greenbelt Metro station in Prince George’s County.
“This case is about more than a building,” said Anthony G. Brown, the Maryland state attorney general. “It’s about ensuring that when Congress makes a decision, the Trump administration does not get to ignore it because they do not like the outcome.”
The F.B.I. did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but Mr. Trump has long opposed the move to Maryland. Since the start of his second term, he has made it clear that he would ignore the 2023 pact negotiated by the Biden administration that would relocate the bureau to Greenbelt.
“They were going to build an F.B.I. headquarters three hours away in Maryland, a liberal state,” Mr. Trump said last year, exaggerating the time needed to commute to a Washington suburb with access to the city’s Metro train system.
“We’re going to stop it,” he added.
Mr. Trump had previously sought to block the bureau from moving out of the city.
In 2018, he discarded plans to select a site in Virginia or Maryland.
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