Appeals courtroom rejects Trump administration bid to reinstate funding freeze

A federal appeals courtroom on Tuesday rejected the Trump administration’s bid to pause a decrease courtroom’s order that briefly halted a large freeze in federal funding.

A decide in Rhode Island on Monday blocked the funding freeze and ordered the federal government to “instantly restore frozen funding.”

In its ruling Tuesday, a three-judge panel for the first U.S. Circuit Court docket of Appeals wrote that the “defendants don’t cite any authority in assist of their administrative keep request or establish any hurt associated to a particular funding motion or actions that they’ll face with out their requested administrative keep.”

The Justice Division had sought two totally different sorts of pauses of U.S. District Choose John J. McConnell’s restraining order barring the federal government from persevering with to implement its sweeping freeze of funding, and one other ruling that discovered that authorities had violated the order. Legal professionals for the DOJ contended partially that McConnell’s order was obscure, however the appeals courtroom recommended they need to be affected person.

“We’re assured the District Court docket will act with dispatch to supply any clarification wanted with respect to, amongst different issues, the defendants’ competition that the February 10 Order ‘bars each the President and far of the Federal Authorities from exercising their very own lawful authorities to withhold funding with out the prior approval of the district courtroom,'” the appeals courtroom wrote Tuesday.

It mentioned each side ought to submit additional arguments on the federal government’s request for a keep pending a full attraction by Thursday. The administration has requested the appeals courtroom to rule on the total keep request by Friday.