Posted on 02/10/2025 9:59:54 AM PST by RummyChick
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – A Rhode Island federal judge on Monday found the Trump administration in violation of a court order, telling the new president to “immediately restore frozen funding.”
U.S. District Chief Judge John McConnell granted a “motion for enforcement” of a temporary restraining order, or TRO, he signed last month, blocking President Donald Trump’s freeze of Congress-approved funds across the country.
“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 of appropriated federal funds,” McConnell wrote in his decision Monday.
“These pauses in funding violate the plain text of the TRO,” he added.
McConnell ordered the federal government to “immediately end any federal funding pause” until he decides on whether to make the order more permanent through a preliminary injunction.
The plaintiffs — comprising 23 Democratic state attorneys general — filed the motion on Friday asking McConnell to reinforce the order.
McConnell specifically ordered the administration to restore funds appropriated in the Inflation Reduction Act, and for agencies like the National Institutes of Health.
The Trump administration has said the funding freeze was necessary to ensure federal expenses aligned with the policies and goals of the new president. But McConnell said the freezes “now were a result of the broad categorical order, not a specific finding of possible fraud.”
The administration later rescinded the memo amid widespread confusion and pushback, but only offered vague guidance as to whether funding would continue to flow.
This states’ legal action was initially filed by states attorney generals in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, California, New York, Illinois, and New Jersey.
It was later joined by Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia.
Another worm sticks his miserable head out of the rotten Federal apple.
so what.
Ignore, and let him try to enforce.
Violation of court orders can be used as grounds for impeachment of the President.
Trump will have to appeal and play these obstacles out in the courts, which can take months or even years.
The Establishment currently has the Trump Administration in check.
Yes, i have posted the actual order. I agree with your assessment
T$’s lawyer need to tell that judge he has no standing
They have no constitutional authority in these matters-
bkmk
Congress may have spent the money, but is it even lawful or authorized. The authorizations for some of this spending apparently ended up to 40 years ago, so they’re spending what amounts to unauthorized funds.
But isn’t Congress giving authority by the spending itself? Well, if that were the case, there would be no problem, right? So why the complaints about authorizations being expired?
Another black-robed DNC stooge who can’t or won’t stay in his lane. The boy is abusing powers that he doesn’t have. His ass needs to be fired.
What’s next, federal marshals called in to write checks? This is getting absurd.
What if the remaining state AGs are fine with the pause. Should the judge take a vote of all states to see what the majority thinks?
As far as I can tell, the plaintiffs are all blue state AGs.
The deep state agents and printed-Fed.gov-debt-money cronies are legion. They have fed at the trough of Fed.gov power and debt for many decades
No one has ever challenged them the way Trump and DOGE are challenging them
SCOTUS will be forced to fast-track cases simply stating the very simple Constitutional case that the President has power over the Federal Bureaucracy.
The President will have to ask the Supreme Court to intervene in this insane lower court orders that threaten federal officials who are following Presidential directives.
Congressional legislation does not dictate when funds are paid out—the judge’s ruling is absurd on its face.
> How about no.
Violation of court orders is solid grounds for impeachment.
Conviction would be almost a given.
See post 17.
The court order is crazy.
That guy doesn’t strike me as somebody before whom I would want to go hat in hand. If I must humbly ask a judge whether I can impound some spending, would it hurt him to strike a pose that doesn’t make him look like an arrogant wise-acre?
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