Justice Department’s ending of grants for domestic violence programs is likely unconstitutional, judge finds
CNN
A federal judge said Wednesday that the Trump Justice Department likely engaged in unconstitutional retaliation when it cut off grants to American Bar Association programs assisting victims of domestic violence.
A federal judge said Wednesday that the Trump Justice Department likely engaged in unconstitutional retaliation when it cut off grants to American Bar Association programs assisting victims of domestic violence. The preliminary order from US District Judge Casey Cooper requires the Trump administration to pay out the $2 million in grant funding it still owes to the programs, which provide training to lawyers who work with victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse. Cooper concluded that the terminations were connected to the ABA’s involvement in a lawsuit challenging a Trump freeze on foreign assistance, amounting to retaliation of speech protected by the First Amendment. “The ABA regularly engages in protected expressive activity, and DOJ’s termination of its grants directly punishes that activity,” his opinion said. The case is the latest example of a judge pushing back on President Donald Trump’s crusade against the legal industry for opposing his agenda. Conservatives have long complained that the American Bar Association has a leftwing bent and is not a neutral professional organization. But tensions have escalated in Trump’s second term, as the ABA has spoken out in defense of judges Trump has smeared for ruling against his policies. In addition to canceling the grants, Trump has taken aim at the role ABA plays in the accreditation of law schools. The Justice Department canceled grants to the ABA’s domestic violence-related programs just a day after Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a memo barring DOJ lawyers from participating in ABA events. The memo pointed to the ABA’s participation in a lawsuit against the administration.
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