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U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell said there was no constitutional authority allowing the White House to shut off trillions in funding approved by Congress.
WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Rhode Island extended his order Thursday barring the government from freezing federal funding to a coalition of states and D.C., saying the Trump administration had undermined the separation of powers.
U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell Jr. granted a request sought by 22 states and the District for a preliminary injunction that will prevent the administration from implementing a government-wide freeze of federal funding and grants ordered by a now-rescinded memo published in January by the White House Office of Management and Budget.
“The Executive’s categorical freeze of appropriated and obligated funds fundamentally undermines the distinct constitutional roles of each branch of our government,” McConnell wrote in his opinion. “The interaction of the three co-equal branches of government is an intricate, delicate, and sophisticated balance—but it is crucial to our form of constitutional governance. Here, the Executive put itself above Congress.”
McConnell, who granted an initial restraining order on the freeze in late January, said the constitution gives the power of the purse to the legislative branch and the Trump administration had no constitutional or statutory to refuse to spend money allocated by Congress.
The order bars the administration from reissuing the memo or attempting to freeze grants, contracts or other financial obligations to 22 states and D.C.
McConnell is now the second judge to grant an injunction on the funding freeze. Last week, U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan, in D.C., issued a similar opinion finding the public had an overriding interest in not having trillions of dollars of federal funds “arbitrarily frozen.”
The White House withdrew the memo ordering the funding freeze in early February after receiving a barrage of criticism from around the country about the chaos and confusion it caused. Officials from nearly every state reported losing access to Medicaid and Head Start payment portals. Despite McConnell’s and AliKhan’s orders, many of those portals remained inaccessible for days even after the memo was withdrawn.
The freeze was ordered while federal agencies conducted a comprehensive analysis of spending to determine whether it aligned with President Donald Trump’s recent executive orders, including those reevaluating foreign aid spending, rolling back protections for transgender individuals and ending diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs. Since withdrawing the memo, the administration has sought to achieve that goal in other ways, including largely dismantling USAID’s $60 billion foreign aid portfolio and empowering billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to terminate contracts and grants en masse across the government.
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