Politics

U.S. District Court Judge John McConnell became the first judge to find that the administration had disobeyed a court order. Federal money for things like early childhood education, pollution reduction and HIV prevention research has remained tied up even after his Jan. 31 order blocking a planned halt on federal spending, he found.

McConnell’s temporary restraining order issued Monday also blocks the administration from cutting billions of dollars in grant funding from the National Institutes of Health.

“These pauses in funding violate the plain text of the (temporary restraining order),” McConnell wrote. “The broad categorical and sweeping freeze of federal funds is, as the Court found, likely unconstitutional and has caused and continues to cause irreparable harm to a vast portion of this country.”