A federal judge has ordered Donald Trump’s administration to immediately lift a block on payments to the US’s premier medical research institute, and to unlock billions of dollars in funding for clean energy projects.
John J McConnell on Monday reiterated that the White House’s attempt to freeze federal funds was “likely unconstitutional” and said several states had shown evidence that the Trump administration was continuing to withhold certain funds in violation of a previous order, singling out payments to the National Institutes of Health.
The order is the latest in a series of legal blows to the Trump administration’s early policy efforts. Over the weekend, a federal judge in New York barred emissaries from the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) and political appointees from entering the Treasury’s sensitive, multitrillion-dollar payments system.
A deadline for millions of civil servants to accept a redundancy package, originally set for last Thursday, was also postponed by a court last week.
However, in a separate case on Monday, a federal judge denied a request from labour groups for Doge representatives to be pre-emptively barred from accessing US Department of Labor systems.
In the payments case, McConnell last month imposed a temporary restraining order, arguing that the states had presented sufficient evidence that “they will probably suffer severe and irreparable harm” if the court had not granted their request to prevent the funding freeze.
“This administration’s reckless plan to block federal funding has already caused chaos, confusion and conflict throughout our country,” said Letitia James, the attorney-general in New York, one of the states that brought the case, after McConnell imposed the temporary order.
The freeze was later rescinded by the White House, but states, including New York, claimed billions of dollars in federal funding was still being withheld, especially those related to green energy projects under former president Joe Biden’s flagship Inflation Reduction Act.
James on Monday joined 21 other state attorneys-general in a separate lawsuit against the Trump administration for attempting to slash grant funding to universities and research institutions across the country.
The case focuses on new guidance released by the NIH, which said it would from Monday cut “indirect” support to such institutions to 15 per cent from a current average of 27 per cent. The funding covers the administrative costs of research projects.
The move “could force scientists to shutter their life-saving research on cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, addiction, infectious diseases and more”, James said in a statement.
The NIH said it was “vital to ensure that as many funds as possible go towards direct scientific research costs rather than administrative overhead”. But the academic community has warned that the cuts would harm research and scientific progress as well as disrupt laboratories’ maintenance.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.