A federal judge declared Thursday that President Trump’s attempt to pause potentially trillions of dollars in government grants and contracts violates the Constitution and cannot proceed.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell Jr. is the stiffest legal spanking yet for Mr. Trump’s spending plans.
Judge McConnell said the Constitution gives Congress the power to spend taxpayers’ money and the president has only limited leeway — where Congress specifically delegates it.
Mr. Trump’s broad freeze goes well beyond what Congress has allowed, the judge ruled.
“Here, the Executive put itself above Congress. It imposed a categorical mandate on the spending of congressionally appropriated and obligated funds without regard to Congress’ authority to control spending,” said Judge McConnell, the chief federal district judge in Rhode Island.
He previously issued a restraining order on Mr. Trump’s spending pause, but his latest ruling converts that into a preliminary injunction, which is a more lasting legal bar to the president’s action.
It also gives the president a sturdier legal ruling to appeal to higher courts.
The judge cited at least five presidential executive orders that halted spending under the Inflation Reduction Act and the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure spending law; money for programs benefiting illegal immigrants; diversity, equity and inclusion spending; “gender ideology” spending; and foreign aid.
The judge also cited a follow-up memo from the White House budget office carrying out the executive orders.
Judge McConnell, an Obama appointee, said agencies cannot act on the budget office directive, at least as it pertains to spending in the 21 states and the District of Columbia, which were the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
He kicked off his 45-page ruling with a lengthy account of how and why the country’s founders allocated the spending power to Congress, saying it was a response to “a monarch’s cruel reign.”
His ruling is the latest in a fierce war raging in the courts over Mr. Trump’s aggressive agenda.
He faces lawsuits over his changes to immigration policy, his attempts to grant his Department of Government Efficiency access to personnel files and records, his expansive firings, his cuts to government spending and his rewriting of the government’s bureaucratic flowchart.
In early legal wrangling, Mr. Trump has lost more than he’s won, though there have been some important victories.
On Wednesday, for example, a federal appeals court allowed him to oust Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger, a federal employee watchdog. Mr. Dellinger can still challenge his firing but, as of now, Mr. Trump can make sure he’s not still sitting in the job while the case proceeds.
In other action Thursday, a federal judge in Washington rebuffed a demand for a restraining order limiting Mr. Trump’s dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development and his foreign assistance spending pause.
Some of that overlaps with other courts that have ruled against Mr. Trump.
A federal judge in Maryland, meanwhile, extended a blockade on the Department of Government Efficiency to obtain private personnel and pay records from several government agencies.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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