January 28, 2025
Just as fast as Trump ordered it – a federal judge blocked it.
A federal judge in Washington DC just temporarily blocked President Trump’s controversial order to freeze federal assistance, loans and grant programs for individuals and organizations until at least next week.
So – for those that were worried – you can exhale for a few days –because nothing is going to “freeze” yet. But that doesn’t mean it won’t in the end.
As I told you in this video just a few hours ago several nonprofits that receive federal funding filed this lawsuit against the trump administration over this two-page memo from the office of management and budget released last night ordering all agencies must “temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all federal financial assistance.” Why? According to the white house, because the trump administration believes if taxpayer money is being use for those financial assistance programs for Americans and American agencies — those programs should be advancing the trump administration priorities not “Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies.” But the memo didn’t specify which programs would fall into those categories – the memo says funding for all programs would be temporarily paused. Although there was a specific exception for social security and Medicare funding.
The White House press secretary tried to clean it up and clarify what was going on this afternoon…but that didn’t really help to identify how this funding freeze would apply to all the organizations and state funding programs that congress already approved that were signed into law.
Well – in their legal filing the nonprofits say what Trump is doing is straight up illegal and they want the judge to issue a full temporary restraining order to stop the trump administration from following through on this plan. They say “although the trump administration is at liberty to “advanc[e] [its] priorities,” it must do so within the confines of the law. It has not. The memo fails to explain the source of OMB’s purported legal authority to gut every grant program in the federal government; it fails to consider the reliance interest of the many grant recipients, including those to whom money had already been promised; and it announces a policy of targeting grant recipients based in part on those recipients’ first amendment rights and with no bearing on the recipients’ eligibility to receive federal funds.”
The group says there are constitutional questions about Trump’s ability to do this becuase of as you heard – the first amendment – but also because of the fact that the constitution squarely puts the power of the purse in the hands of congress. Not the president. On top of those huge questions, there’s also simple contract questions that need answering.
Plus there’s the question about the law passed by congress that prevents the president from doing this specific thing. It’s called the Impoundment Control Act of 1974. This law reasserted congress’s constitutional power of the purse and it specifically prevents the president and other government officials from unilaterally substituting their own funding decisions for the funding decisions of the congress. This law was passed in response to what congress saw as President Nixon’s executive overreach during his term.
Let’s not beat around the bush — the Trump administration knew this fight was coming. They want to have this fight. And look it’s not just going to be limited to these non-profits – almost two dozen states also filed a lawsuit against the trump administration to stop this funding freeze. Stephen Miller, one of Trump’s key advisors says Trump and his advisors think the Impoundment Control Act is unconstitutional and because of it, trump isn’t going to follow it. Now – of course the courts could order him to follow it… And that’s what this DC federal judge did today.
She put an administrative stay – which is a temporary pause on any federal funding freeze until February 3rd at 5 p.m. the judge is going to hold a full hearing on Monday morning to decide whether to issue a full temporary restraining order to make this trump administration stop this permanently. But regardless of how this judge rules – you can bet this is one of those cases that is going to get appealed all the way up to the Supreme Court. And even the press secretary said today – they fully expect that’s where this is going to end up.
Read the lawsuit here.
