Federal Judge Says Trump Administration Is Violating His Order To Halt Funding Freeze

The administration is still freezing federal funds in violation of a judicial order stopping it from doing so.

The Trump administration is violating a court mandated restraining order prohibiting it from freezing federal funds in accordance with the Office of Management and Budget memo authorizing a broad freeze on Jan. 27, a federal judge said on Monday.

Judge John McConnell, the chief judge of the District Court of Rhode Island, ordered the administration to “immediately restore frozen funding” in order to comply with the temporary restraining order he issued blocking the implementation of the OMB memo on Jan. 31.

“The States have presented evidence in this motion that the Defendants in some cases have continued to improperly freeze federal funds and refused to resume disbursement of appropriated federal funds,” McConnell wrote in an order released on Monday.

McConnell’s order for the administration to follow the law and obey the court’s decisions comes as high-level officials from Vice President JD Vance to domestic policy advisor Stephen Miller publicly argued that courts have no authority to block policies implemented by the president. It is not immediately clear whether the administration’s failure to comply with McConnell’s order is an intentional effort to disobey the court or an attempt to circumvent its order by claiming authority to freeze funds from presidential directives other than the OMB memo.

When OMB issued its funding freeze memo on Jan. 27 it caused a whirlwind of confusion and chaos as the vaguely worded memo seemingly applied to all federal grants, contracts and financial assistance. Payments portals for Medicaid, Head Start and housing, among others, went down. Health centers, day cares and support programs for the disabled were thrown into uncertainty.