President Donald Trump faced another legal defeat on Wednesday evening as a federal appeals court denied his administration’s attempt to lift a block on controversial federal spending freezes. The ruling, reported by The New York Times, is the latest development in an ongoing legal battle between the Trump administration and a coalition of Democratic state attorneys general.
The coalition, made up of nearly two dozen Democratic-led states, sued the administration over what they described as unconstitutional, unilateral funding cuts. Among the programs targeted were disaster relief funds administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which the states argued were essential to public safety and economic stability.
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“The decision denied a request from the Trump administration to stay a ruling by Judge John J. McConnell Jr. of the Federal District Court for the District of Rhode Island this month,” wrote reporter Zach Montague. “Judge McConnell found that the administration had effectively subverted Congress in choking off funds in ways that jeopardized state governments and the services they provide their residents.”
The appeals court supported that conclusion, citing extensive harms to the states’ financial planning and operations. “Even if we were to set aside the harms to the Plaintiff-States’ residents, the District Court still found a number of harms that the Plaintiff-States themselves would irreparably suffer,” the panel wrote. These harms included “the obligation of new debt; the inability to pay existing debt; impediments to planning, hiring, and operations; and disruptions to research projects by state universities.”
The court also criticized the administration’s failure to provide clarity on how and when the states might recover the withheld funds. “The movants have not met their burden,” the opinion concluded, signaling a strong rebuke of the administration’s legal position.
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This ruling marked the Trump administration’s second appellate court loss of the day. Earlier, a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., refused to lift a separate block imposed by District Judge James Boasberg, which halted the mass deportation of individuals alleged—without formal due process—to be part of the Venezuelan crime syndicate Tren de Aragua.
Together, the decisions underscore growing judicial skepticism over the Trump administration’s aggressive use of executive authority, particularly in matters of funding and immigration, as legal challenges continue to mount.
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