Eight cities and counties are suing the administration over grant conditions, arguing that they had to be approved by Congress.
A federal judge on May 7 temporarily blocked the Trump administration from imposing new conditions on grants that fund transit services for the Seattle area and homelessness services for Boston, New York, San Francisco, and other local governments.
The ruling stems from a lawsuit filed on May 2 by eight cities and counties challenging the new conditions, which were issued in multiple White House executiveorders.
The executive orders prohibit the funds from being used on any activities that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies or that go against the administration’s stance on immigration, health care, and gender ideology.
The cities and counties argue that the conditions are unconstitutional and unlawful, do not pertain to the purposes of the grant programs, and are aimed at coercing them into adhering to the administration’s policy agenda.
In issuing the temporary restraining order, District Judge Barbara Rothstein in Seattle said local governments had shown they were likely to win their case against the administration because the conditions at issue had not been approved by Congress.
Additionally, the conditions were not closely related to the purposes of the grants and the programs they fund, and would not make the administration of the grants more efficient and effective, Rothstein found.
Plaintiffs also sufficiently demonstrated that they would suffer irreparable harm unless a temporary restraining order was granted, Rothstein said.
“Even setting aside whether Plaintiffs are faced with an imminent deadline to agree to the Grant Conditions, Plaintiffs do face an imminent threat in the absence of a [temporary restraining order],” the judge wrote. “Defendants have put Plaintiffs in the position of having to choose between accepting conditions that they believe are unconstitutional, and risking the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grant funding, including funding that they have already budgeted and are committed to spending.”
Rothstein blocked the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Department of Transportation’s Federal Transportation Administration (FTA) from enforcing the new grant conditions or withholding or delaying funding awarded under the grants for 14 days.
