PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — A Rhode Island federal judge agreed Thursday to continue blocking President Donald Trump’s administration from freezing federal aid to states, dealing the latest blow to the president’s attempt to have greater control over Congress-approved funds.
Rhode Island U.S. District Court Judge John McConnell issued a preliminary injunction requested earlier this year by nearly two dozen state attorneys general. The order comes in the wake of a similar decision handed down by a Washington D.C. federal judge last week.
“Here, the executive put itself above Congress,” wrote McConnell in his decision. “It imposed a categorical mandate on the spending of congressional appropriated and obligated funds without regard to Congress’s authority to control spending.”
Nearly two dozen state attorneys general sued the Trump administration in January after federal officials announced a sweeping pause of federal aid potentially totaling trillions of dollars.
The funding freeze has caused widespread confusion and disruption to programs across the country.
“The funding freeze also impacts law enforcement and public safety agencies who also rely on federal funding,” McConnell, an Obama appointee, wrote. “Federal grant programs support state and local law enforcement agencies, community violence, and crisis interruption programs, and programs addressing sexual violence, among many other crucial services.”
McConnell in his order suggested the Trump administration’s effort to freeze already-approved funds was a separation of powers issue, highlighting that federal agencies and departments “can spend, award or suspend money based only on the power Congress has given them.”
“They have no other spending power,” he wrote. “The executive has not appointed to any constitutional or statutory authority that would allow them to impose this type of categorical freeze.”
McConnell has consistently ruled in favor of the state attorneys general ever since he granted a temporary restraining order shortly after Trump took office and called for a pause on all federal funds that don’t align with his priorities.
On Feb. 10, McConnell determined the Trump administration violated his order, and a day later, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston upheld McConnell’s decision after Trump attorneys appealed.
The White House has defending the freeze saying a review of federal funding is warranted to ensure the spending of taxpayer dollars aligns with the president’s policies and priorities.
Trump attorneys have argued the legal issue is moot because federal officials quickly rescinded a memo that initially ordered the sweeping pause of federal aid to states.
At a hearing last month at U.S. District Court in Providence, Trump administration attorney Daniel Schwei also criticized the states for making arguments he said were too broad and vague. Any order in favor of the states, he warned, could also have too broad an effect on executive decision-making.
McConnell dismissed the argument in his order, saying his decision does not prevent the Trump administration from making funding decisions that are lawful.
“An agency is not harmed by an order prohibiting it from violating the law,” he wrote.
He determined that the plaintiff states had a “substantial likelihood of success” in the overall case, and would suffer irreparable harm if the freeze was allowed to continue.
In a statement, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said McConnell’s decision reinforces that the funding freeze “flies in the face of everything we know to be true about our government, namely our separation of powers.”
“Today’s decision reminds us that the President cannot amend the Constitution with the stroke of a pen,” Neronha said. “In fact, our founders designed it to protect against those who may try. We must come together and assert that in America, the power of the people will always trump the power of one man.”
McConnell’s order granting the preliminary injunction extends his temporary restraining order until the full case is ultimately decided by the court.