A federal appeals court on Tuesday rejected the Trump administration's bid to pause a lower court's order that temporarily halted a massive freeze in federal funding.
A judge in Rhode Island on Monday blocked the funding freeze and ordered the government to “immediately restore frozen funding.”
In its ruling Tuesday, a three-judge panel for the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals wrote that the "defendants do not cite any authority in support of their administrative stay request or identify any harm related to a specific funding action or actions that they will face without their requested administrative stay."
The Justice Department had sought two different kinds of pauses of U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell's restraining order barring the government from continuing to implement its sweeping freeze of funding, and another ruling that found that government had violated the order. Lawyers for the DOJ contended in part that McConnell's order was vague, but the appeals court suggested they should be patient.
"We are confident the District Court will act with dispatch to provide any clarification needed with respect to, among other things, the defendants' contention that the February 10 Order 'bars both the President and much of the Federal Government from exercising their own lawful authorities to withhold funding without the prior approval of the district court,'" the appeals court wrote Tuesday.
It said both sides should submit further arguments on the government's request for a stay pending a full appeal by Thursday. The administration has asked the appeals court to rule on the full stay request by Friday.
The White House and Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday night.
The legal challenge was brought by a coalition of 22 states in the wake of the chaos and confusion across the country last month caused by a wide-ranging Office of Management and Budget memo aimed at implementing some of President Donald Trump's executive orders.
The memo directed federal agencies to “temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders" on issues like foreign aid and DEI programs. It was later rescinded, but White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the funding freeze was still in effect.
Judge McConnell granted the states' request for a temporary restraining order in a Jan. 31 ruling finding the states “are likely to succeed on the merits of some, if not all, their claims” that the funding freeze exceeded the president's powers.
“Federal law specifies how the Executive should act if it believes that appropriations are inconsistent with the President’s priorities — it must ask Congress, not act unilaterally,” he wrote.
The states later contended that some of the funding was still frozen, leading McConnell to issue an order on Monday directing the government to comply with his order. He's expected to a hold a hearing on the states' request for an injunction later this month.
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