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(CN) — In a small win for the states challenging President Donald Trump’s federal funding freeze, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration Monday to unfreeze that money.
U.S. District Judge Jack McConnell, a Barack Obama appointee in the District of Rhode Island, found Trump blatantly ignored a previous order from the judge demanding he resume disbursing the funds.
His order comes after the nearly two dozen states challenging the funding freeze asked the judge to order Trump to resume disbursement again.
“The broad categorical and sweeping freeze of federal funds is, as the court found, likely unconstitutional and has caused and continues to cause irreparable harm to a vast portion of the country,” McConnell said in his most recent order.
Despite Trump’s arguments that the continued funding freeze was just an attempt to “root out fraud,” McConnell found that the freezes still in effect are the result of a “broad categorical order” and not a specific finding of potential fraud.
In their motion, the states said funding for several Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act programs was still blocked by the Trump administration. McConnell specified in his order that the Trump administration should resume disbursing these funds.
Among these programs, the states say, is the Climate Pollution Reduction Grant — a $5 billion EPA initiative that supports states, tribes and local governments in planning and implementing greenhouse gas reduction measures.
The Home Electrification and Appliances Rebates program — a $4.5 billion project that subsidizes low-income households’ purchase of essential appliances like electric water heaters — is another program that remains unfunded.
The 23-state coalition challenging Trump’s federal funding freeze is being led by the attorneys general of California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island — where the lawsuit against Trump’s funding freeze was filed.
“Judge McConnell’s order confirmed what we have been saying from the beginning,” Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said in a statement. “It is now time for the administration to come into full compliance.”
Neronha and the other attorneys general filed their lawsuit on Jan. 28 after a leaked memo from the White House Office of Management and Budget outlining the freeze caused widespread panic and confusion throughout the country.
The states were granted a temporary restraining order on the freeze on Jan. 31. The following week, U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan, a Joe Boden appointee in Washington, D.C., placed her own restraining order on the funding freeze.
As Trump continues to impose executive orders that seek to push the power of the presidency, the White House has been the target of dozens of lawsuits challenging Trump’s reach. Federal judges have also stepped in to halt Trump’s orders to limit birthright citizenship and offer buyouts to more than 2 million federal employees.
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