Trump loses bid to pause judge’s order barring funding freezes
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The appeal came as US President Donald Trump and key members of his administration have been criticising judges who have blocked major pieces of the president's agenda.
PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
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BOSTON - US President Donald Trump on Feb 11 lost the latest round in a court battle over his administration’s bid to freeze federal spending after an appeals court declined to pause a court order requiring the government to continue delivering funds.
The US Department of Justice had asked the Boston-based 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals late on Feb 10 to put on hold an order that a Rhode Island federal judge issued earlier that day, after finding the administration had defied his Jan 31 ruling by continuing to withhold billions of dollars in federal funding.
The Justice Department argued US District Judge John McConnell engaged in “intolerable judicial overreach” as Mr Trump’s authority to direct agencies to carry out actions consistent with his policy preferences was “well-settled”.
But the three-judge appellate panel in a short order said it was confident Judge McConnell would quickly clarify the concerns the administration had raised, including that his order bars Mr Trump from exercising his lawful authority.
The ruling marked the first appellate court setback that Mr Trump’s agenda has faced since he returned to office on Jan 20.
The 1st Circuit did not bar the administration from seeking again to have Judge McConnell’s order put on hold and said it could file additional papers seeking to do so by the end of Feb 13.
The three-judge panel included US Circuit judges David Barron, Lara Montecalvo and Julie Rikelman, all appointees of Democratic presidents. The White House said it would continue to fight in court.
“These unlawful injunctions are a continuation of the weaponisation of justice against President Trump,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
The 1st Circuit ruled as Mr Trump, key members of his administration and billionaire ally Elon Musk have been criticising judges who have blocked major pieces of the president’s agenda, in some cases arguing that judges have no power to intrude on the president’s authority.
Mr Trump said on social media on Feb 11 that “certain activists and highly political judges want us to slow down, or stop” the administration’s efforts to eliminate federal government waste.
“Democracy in America is being destroyed by judicial coup,” Mr Musk, the world’s richest man, wrote on social media on Feb 11, after calling for the impeachment of a judge in New York who barred his Department of Government Efficiency from accessing Treasury Department systems.
Such comments have fuelled concerns about whether the Trump administration would abide by court rulings. The American Bar Association, in a statement on Feb 10, raised concerns about "wide-scale affronts to the rule of law itself" under Mr Trump.
The lawsuit before Judge McConnell was filed by Democratic attorneys general from 22 states and the District of Columbia, who sued after the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a memo announcing a freeze that implicated trillions of dollars in spending.
OMB later withdrew that memo. But Mr McConnell had concluded that a temporary restraining order was still necessary because of evidence that a funding freeze remained in effect and that OMB’s rescission of the memo was in “name only”.
The case is one of dozens of lawsuits in which Democratic-led states, civil rights groups and progressive advocacy organisations have obtained court orders blocking for now Mr Trump’s efforts to reduce the size of the federal government, cut spending and crack down on immigration.
The Democratic state attorneys general on Feb 7 urged Judge McConnell to enforce his funding freeze order, saying the administration had taken the position that it could still withhold billions of dollars in infrastructure and environmental funding under the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Improvement and Jobs Act.
Judge McConnell, an appointee of Democratic former President Barack Obama, said on Feb 10 his earlier order was "clear and unambiguous" and barred all categorical pauses or freezes in federal funding.
Rhode Island Attorney-General Peter Neronha, who is helping lead the litigation, in a statement said the 1st Circuit’s decision ensured Judge McConnell’s “order remains in full force, and we expect the administration to comply”. REUTERS
