Judge maintains block on Trump administration's funding freeze

Washington — A federal judge on Monday ordered the Trump administration to temporarily stop its freeze on federal assistance, allowing aid to continue flowing to nonprofit organizations and other entities after the funding was targeted by the White House budget office last week.

U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan of the federal district court in Washington, D.C., formally granted the request from a coalition of nonprofits that had challenged the directive from the Office of Management and Budget, or OMB. She said the administration's actions "run roughshod over a 'bulwark of the Constitution' by interfering with Congress's appropriation of funds."

Issued nearly one week ago, the OMB memo directed all agencies to temporarily pause all federal assistance that may be implicated by certain executive orders issued by President Trump in his first days in office.