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2nd federal judge orders Trump administration to pause federal funding freeze

President Donald Trump
Shealah Craighead/White House
President Donald Trump boards Air Force One on Oct. 17, 2020.

A federal judge in Rhode Island issued an order temporarily blocking President Donald Trump’s effort to pause federal grants and other financial aid that flows to states and nonprofits.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes and 22 other Democratic attorneys general filed the lawsuit on Tuesday. They argued, by cutting off money already appropriated by Congress, Trump violated the Constitution and federal law.

“These are funds that were authorized by Congress, and that Donald Trump just decided to shut off,” Mayes said. “He sort of turned the spigot off on his own. That is not the way it works in our country, so that is blatantly, flatly unconstitutional.”

Judge John McConnell agreed, finding the president overstepped his authority.

“Congress has not given the Executive limitless power to broadly and indefinitely pause all funds that it has expressly directed to specific recipients and purposes and therefore the Executive’s actions violate the separation of powers,” the judge wrote in the order.

The ruling comes days after Trump rescinded the memo. But McConnell says his order is still needed, because the White House has indicated it still plans to move forward with the funding freeze.

“But the evidence shows that the alleged rescission of the OMB Directive was in name-only and may have been issued simply to defeat the jurisdiction of the courts,” McConnell wrote. “The substantive effect of the directive carries on.”

The judge’s temporary restraining order blocking the funding freeze will remain in effect until the court rules further in the case.

Wayne Schutsky is a broadcast field correspondent covering Arizona politics on KJZZ. He has over a decade of experience as a journalist reporting on local communities in Arizona and the state Capitol.