Federal judge grants request by California AG & others to block Trump’s funding freeze

A federal judge Monday in Rhode Island granted a request by California Attorney General Rob Bonta and nearly two dozen other attorneys general to enforce the court order barring President Donald Trump from enacting a federal funding freeze.

Bonta had accused the Trump administration of failing to comply with a temporary restraining order against the freeze.

U.S. District Court Judge John McConnell noted in his decision that “it is a basic proposition that all orders and judgments of courts must be complied with promptly.”

A copy of the ruling can be viewed here.

“The defendants received notice of the (temporary restraining order), the order is clear and unambiguous, and there are no impediments to the defendants’ compliance with the order,” the judge wrote.

The Trump administration had argued that it was trying to prevent fraudulent payments from going out.

“But the freezes in effect now were a result of the broad categorical order, not a specific finding of possible fraud. 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 this country,” McConnell wrote.

The judge added that the Trump administration can request “targeted relief” from the temporary restraining order “where they can show a specific instance where they are acting in compliance with this order but otherwise withholding funds due to specific authority.”

Under the Monday ruling, the Trump administration was ordered to immediately end any federal funding pause and to restore any withheld funds, including those appropriated by Congress through the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Improvement and Jobs Act.

The judge also ruled that Trump must restore the funding of agencies such as the National Institutes of Health.

In a statement Monday, Bonta said Trump unlawfully withheld federal funding for more than a week after the court initially issued the temporary restraining order. At a Friday press conference, Bonta declined to speculate whether that was “due to incompetence, oversight or whether it was intentional defiance.”

“The court’s decision today is unequivocal: The Trump administration must fully comply with the court’s order and immediately restore all federal funding while our litigation continues,” Bonta said.

McConnell’s ruling comes a day after Vice President JD Vance posted on social media challenging the constitutional authority of judges to block Trump’s orders.

“If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal. If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that’s also illegal. Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power,” Vance wrote.

This story was originally published February 10, 2025 at 2:07 PM.