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CV NEWS FEED // A federal district judge in Washington, DC, temporarily halted the Trump administration’s pause of federal aid funding Tuesday, just before it was to go into effect.
District Judge Loren AliKhan made the last-minute call after the National Council of Nonprofits sued earlier Tuesday, alleging that the funding pause would gravely harm nonprofit organizations contracted to receive federal grant installments.
The judge’s ruling against the Trump administration’s funding freeze applies until Monday, Feb. 3, when a hearing will take place to further assess the measure.
AliKhan’s ruling “doesn’t get into the legality of the freeze,” NBC News reported. Instead, “it gives her time to hear more fleshed-out arguments from a coalition of nonprofit groups about why she should issue a temporary restraining order that could block the freeze for an additional two weeks. The hearing will take place at 11 a.m. Monday.”
“Tuesday’s court order,” NBC added, “was just the first step in what’s expected to be a major legal battle that could quickly end up before the Supreme Court.”
The Hill reported that “AliKhan, an appointee of former President Biden who was randomly assigned to the case, issued the order at the conclusion of a hastily scheduled video conference Tuesday that began just an hour before the freeze.”
“Trump’s move was announced in a Monday night memo issued by Matthew Vaeth, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB),” according to The Hill’s report. “It directs federal agencies to temporarily pause ‘all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance’ while the government conducts a review to ensure spending aligns with Trump’s agenda.”
The judge’s ruling comes amid a government-wide effort by the Trump administration to put a stop to controversial taxpayer-funded social and political programming, much of it put in motion under the previous Biden administration.
Trump has issued executive orders directing an end to taxpayer-funded federal support for abortions, the aiding and abetting of illegal immigration, and the subjection of children to sexual surgeries in the name of “gender-affirming care.”
At least 56 senior officials at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), meanwhile, have been placed on administrative leave this week after allegedly working to undermine Trump’s executive orders.
