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Judge Says Trump Admin Is Violating Order to Halt Funding Freeze
"Judge McConnell's ruling in our favor was swift, and unsurprising," said Rhode Island's attorney general. "It is now time for the administration to come into full compliance."
Feb 10, 2025
U.S. District Judge John McConnell Jr. on Monday demanded that the Trump administration comply with his earlier order to halt a freeze on federal funding that's being challenged in multiple court cases.
McConnell, appointed to the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island by former Democratic President Barack Obama, is responsible for the case brought by Democratic attorneys general of the District of Columbia and 22 states. He is one of two judges who have issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the administration's attempted freeze.
A week after McConnell granted the TRO, the attorneys general on Friday filed a motion for enforcement of it, telling the judge that "plaintiff states and entities within the plaintiff states continue to be denied access to federal funds" and "these denials continue to cause immediate irreparable harm," putting "jobs, lives, and the social fabric of life" at risk.
"This is a country of laws. We expect the administration to follow the law."
Although the Trump administration claimed that it had engaged in "good-faith, diligent efforts to comply with the injunction" and called for the motion to be dismissed, McConnell wrote Monday that "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."
"The defendants now plea that they are just trying to root out fraud," the judge noted in a five-page order. "But the freezes in effect now were a result of the broad categorical order, not a specific finding of possible fraud. The broad categorical and sweeping freeze of federal funds is, as the court found, likely unconstitutional and has caused and continues to cause irreparable harm to a vast portion of this country. These pauses in funding violate the plain text of the TRO."
McConnell—the first judge to accuse the second Trump administration of violating a court order—issued six clear directives to the Trump administration:
- restore frozen funding;
- end any funding pause;
- take every step necessary to effectuate the temporary restraining order;
- comply with the plain text of the TRO not to pause any funds based on pronouncements incorporated in a now-rescinded Office of Management and Budget memo;
- restore withheld funds—including those appropriated in the Inflation Reduction Act and the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law; and
- resume funding agencies such as the National Institute for Health.
Welcoming the new order in a Monday statement, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said that "Judge McConnell's ruling in our favor was swift, and unsurprising."
"Judge McConnell's order confirmed what we have been saying from the beginning. It is now time for the administration to come into full compliance," Neronha continued. "This is a country of laws. We expect the administration to follow the law. Our office and attorneys general across the country stand ready to keep careful watch on the actions of this administration that follow, and we will not hesitate to go back to court if they don't comply."
New York Attorney General Letitia James shared a similar response on social media, stressing that Republican President Donald Trump "does not have the power to cut whatever spending he wants."
The Associated Pressreported Monday that "the White House did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment" but the U.S. Department of Justice "appealed the ruling to the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals."
The other TRO was issued a week ago by D.C.-based District Judge Loren AliKhan, an appointee of former Democratic President Joe Biden, in a case filed by nonprofits.
As Common Dreamsreported Sunday, in the face of multiple recent rulings against the second Trump administration, both Vice President JD Vance and billionaire Trump ally Elon Musk suggested that the power of judges should be limited or disregarded.
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Students Sue Columbia Over Suspensions for Pro-Palestine Activism
"They singled out a few of us to try to make an example out of us," said one of the student plaintiffs.
Feb 03, 2025
Three Columbia University students on Monday filed a lawsuit against the school administration challenging their suspensions related to pro-Palestine activism, according to an exclusive from the outlet Drop Site.
The students, Aidan Parisi, Brandon Murphy, and Catherine Curran-Groome, were all set to graduate this coming spring prior to their suspensions. After "a monthslong convoluted, and often intimidating, disciplinary process," Parisi and Murphy were given one-year suspensions and Curran-Groome was given a two-year suspension.
According to Drop Site, the complaint alleges that "the university violated its own policies during the disciplinary process, that the university targeted the students for their views, and that it violated New York's landlord tenant laws when it evicted the students from university housing."
"They singled out a few of us to try to make an example out of us," Curran-Groome told Drop Site. "None of us, absolutely none of us, deserved what we've experienced this year at Columbia in terms of the targeting and the discrimination and the violence and the repression."
The university was also sued back in March 2024 by the New York Civil Liberties Union and Palestine Legal, a legal advice and advocacy group, over its suspension of the school's chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace.
Columbia University was the site of vigorous pro-Palestine (and pro-Israel) activism starting in fall 2023, following a deadly Hamas attack on Israel that prompted a devastating Israeli military campaign in the Gaza Strip. Pro-Palestine students and student groups at Columbia demanded that the university divest from companies with ties to Israel.
In spring 2024, students launched two successive Gaza solidarity encampments on Colombia's campus. The launch of the first encampment coincided with an appearance by the university's then-president, Minouche Shafik, before Congress. (Shafik resigned in mid-August.)
Curran-Groome and Parisi were first suspended on an interim basis prior the launch of the first encampment for their involvement in a March 2024 event that featured speakers who discussed the history of different strategies for confronting occupation and colonialism, including armed resistance, according to Drop Site. Curran-Groome helped organize the event in her capacity as co-president of the Palestine Working Group, an official student organization.
According to the legal complaint, Curran-Groome sought approval to hold the event on campus. However, after sharing biographies of the speakers with the administration, a university official told her that the group would need approval for the event to be held on campus, per the complaint. The university officials allegedly said that the group could have the event on zoom, hold it on another date, or move it off campus. The Palestine Working Group chose the third option, according to Drop Site.
After the event, Columbia issued a statement calling it "unsanctioned" and "unapproved." Later, the school told Parisi and Curran-Groome they had been interim suspended for violating university policy and compromising the "well-being and safety of the university community," according to Drop Site, quoting the email that the students received.
"After the encampment was established, the students received an additional interim suspension, alleging they violated the first order by being on campus," according to Drop Site.
The school "used that suspension to then levy additional disciplinary actions, alleging that the plaintiffs had violated that first illegitimate interim suspension by then returning to campus," James Carlson, an attorney representing the students, told Drop Site.
The outlet did not give the specific circumstances around Murphy's suspension.
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Another Federal Judge Temporarily Blocks Trump's Funding Freeze
"This administration's reckless plan to block federal funding has already caused chaos, confusion, and conflict throughout our country," said New York's attorney general, who is leading the legal challenge.
Jan 31, 2025
A federal judge in Rhode Island on Friday delivered another blow to U.S. President Donald Trump's effort to dramatically overhaul the government, temporarily blocking the Republican's funding freeze that sparked chaos and confusion this week.
U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell Jr. granted a temporary restraining order in response to a lawsuit filed by the attorneys general of the District of Columbia and 22 states. His move came after Washington, D.C.-based District Judge Loren AliKhan issued an administrative stay that blocked Trump's funding freeze until a Monday hearing, in a case launched by nonprofits.
After AliKhan's Tuesday decision, the Trump administration rescinded the relevant memo from Matthew Vaeth, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). However, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on social media Wednseday: "This is NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze. It is simply a rescission of the OMB memo."
"Why? To end any confusion created by the court's injunction," Leavitt wrote, stressing the president's executive orders "on federal funding remain in full force and effect, and will be rigorously implemented."
Citing Leavitt's post in a 13-page order, McConnell explained that the administration tried to claim "that this matter is moot because it rescinded the OMB directive. But the evidence shows that the alleged rescission of the OMB directive was in name only and may have been issued simply to defeat the jurisdiction of the courts. The substantive effect of the directive carries on."
The temporary restraining order is in effect until further action from McConnell, an appointee of former Democratic President Barack Obama. Although the Trump administration can move forward with its review of federal funds, it cannot "pause, freeze, impede, block, cancel, or terminate" funding to the states or D.C. The judge also prohibited "reissuing, adopting, implementing, or otherwise giving effect to the OMB directive under any other name or title or through any other defendants."
"McConnell's order was expected, as he had signaled following a hearing Wednesday that he was inclined to issue the temporary pause of the Trump administration's directive," CBS Newsnoted Friday.
Still, the Democrats behind the legal challenge celebrated their win. New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement that "this administration's reckless plan to block federal funding has already caused chaos, confusion, and conflict throughout our country. In the short time since this policy was announced, families have been cut off from childcare services, essential Medicaid funds were disrupted, and critical law enforcement efforts were put in jeopardy."
"I led a coalition of attorneys general in suing to stop this cruel policy, and today we won a court order to stop it," she continued.
"The president cannot unilaterally halt congressional spending commitments. I will continue to fight against these illegal cuts and protect essential services that New Yorkers and millions of Americans across the country depend on."
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said that "I am grateful for Judge McConnell's careful consideration of this matter and for seeing the irreparable harm that this directive would cause, and frankly has already caused, Americans across the country."
"As we allege in our complaint, the executive branch does not have the authority to intercept crucially important federal funding that the Congress has already allocated to the states, and on which Americans rely," he emphasized. "This directive targets public safety, healthcare, veterans' services, childcare, disaster relief, and countless other cornerstones of American life."
"Make no mistake: This federal funding pause was implemented to inspire fear and chaos, and it was successful in that respect," he added. "These tactics are intended to wear us down, but with each legal victory we reaffirm that these significant and unlawful disruptions won't be tolerated, and will certainly be met with swift and immediate action now and in the future."
As The New York Timesreported:
Judge McConnell's Friday order does not block the Trump administration from continuing its review, only from defunding those programs that fail its tests in the states that sued—New York, California, Illinois, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin, along with the District of Columbia.
In that sense, it may create a divide between Democratic states that will continue to have funds flowing and Republican states that will still face uncertainty.
The judge's decision came as Trump and billionaire Elon Musk—the richest person on Earth and chair of the president's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—attack the federal government in various ways, including by trying to purge the federal workforce.
As
The Washington Post reported Friday that the U.S. Treasury Department's highest-ranking career official, David Lebryk, is leaving his post after clashing with Musk allies over access to payment systems that the agency uses to distribute over $6 trillion, Reuters revealed the DOGE leader's said have "locked career civil servants out of computer systems that contain the personal data of millions of federal employees."
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