Tracking the Trump administration’s non-adherence to the judiciary’s orders.
RDP will continue to track non-adherence and enforcement efforts as they occur. Please contact us with additional info at [email protected]. Last updated: February 27, 2025.
On January 27, the Trump administration issued a memo ordering a freeze of federal grants and loans, which crippled critical services across the country. Judge Loren L. AliKhan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and Judge John McConnell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island have since blocked the spending pause from going into effect, but there are still numerous examples of shuttered programs and services. We are tracking notable examples of non-adherence. (See also this resource from American Bridge.)
We will also track what efforts the courts take to enforce their orders. As the Federal Judicial Center notes, “the contempt power has remained an important mechanism by which the federal judiciary protects its dignity and authority.” But this power must be wielded lest judicial dignity and authority disappear.
General Updates
- January 31: From Judge McConnell’s order: “Defendants shall not pause, freeze, impede, block, cancel, or terminate Defendants’ compliance with awards and obligations to provide federal financial assistance to the States, and Defendants shall not impede the States’ access to such awards and obligations, except on the basis of the applicable authorizing statutes, regulations, and terms.”
- February 3: From Judge AliKhan’s order: “Defendants are enjoined from implementing, giving effect to, or reinstating under a different name the directives in OMB Memorandum M-25-13 with respect to the disbursement of Federal funds under all open awards.”
- February 7 : The coalition of states that filed their lawsuit in Rhode Island filed a motion asking Judge McConnell to enforce his restraining order against the spending freeze, writing, “Despite the Court’s order, Defendants [the Trump Administration] have failed to resume disbursing federal funds in multiple respects.”
- February 10: Judge McConnell agreed with the states that the Trump administration was violating his order and again ordered that the administration comply.
- February 13: U.S. Judge Amir Ali of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia blocked the Trump administration spending freeze and ordered the administration to restore funds to foreign aid contractors, citing the “extraordinary harm caused by the broad-based halt to foreign aid.”
- From Judge Ali’s order: “It is further hereby ORDERED that nothing in this order shall prohibit the Restrained Defendants from enforcing the terms of contracts or grants.”
- February 25: Judge AliKhan issued a preliminary injunction extending the pause on the Trump administration’s spending freeze enacted in her original court order, citing the administration’s continued violation of the first court order.
- From Judge AliKhan’s order: “Defendants cannot convincingly tell this court that there is no longer a need for injunctive relief after they were found to be in violation of another court’s order. For all these reasons, the court remains unpersuaded by Defendants’ mootness arguments. To be sure, the government is normally entitled to a presumption of good faith on voluntary cessation […] But the court will not confer that presumption when the government says one thing while expressly doing another.”
- February 26: Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily blocked Judge Ali’s order to release nearly $2 billion in funds for foreign aid projects, giving the State Department and USAID contractors until noon on Friday to respond to the Trump administration’s request to lift the order.
Emergency Management
- February 10: According to NBC News, on February 10 a “senior official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency” (FEMA) ordered a funding freeze “for a wide array of grant programs.” The order to continue the illegal funding freeze came hours after Judge McConnell ordered—for a second time—that the administration resume funding for grant programs.
- February 12: The Trump administration pulled more than $80 million from New York City’s bank accounts that had already been disbursed, paid by FEMA for the purpose of sheltering immigrants. City Comptroller Brad Lander said he had never seen anything like it: “I find it terrifying that the federal government had the ability to seize money from us in a way that we did not know before.”
Climate Funding
- February 5: Trump’s EPA is refusing to disperse already-awarded grants funded by the Inflation Reduction Act, in apparent defiance of Judge AliKhan and Judge McConnell’s orders.
- February 6: Solar For All, a $7 billion Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) program to deliver solar to low-income and disadvantaged households, remains frozen. February 7: A climate pollution reduction project in Ohio, estimated to create 200 jobs, remains in limbo after the freeze paused a $139 million grant.
- February 7: Rhode Island was unable to access $125 million in IRA awards as late as the Friday evening.
- February 8: Nevada clean energy programs have been locked out of hundreds of millions in IRA funding.
Foreign Aid
- February 5: Hundreds of organizations across sub-Saharan Africa reported shutting down their programs which relied on PEPFAR for HIV treatments, despite a memo from the State Department clarifying an exemption from the foreign aid pause.
- February 9: Global clinical trials reliant on USAID funding have stopped work and left thousands of people without care.
- February 10: USAID workers told a judge that the administration was continuing to tear down the agency in defiance of a court order, including failing to reinstate employees that the judge had ordered must be reinstated.
- February 11: NOTUS reported that, despite Secretary of State Marco Rubio asserting that foreign aid groups that received stop-work orders could obtain waivers, few waivers had been issued, and many groups that obtained waivers still had significant trouble accessing funding.
- February 11: The Trump administration’s aid freeze became visibly fatal. A 71-year-old woman refugee from Myanmar, living in a displacement camp in Thailand, died four days after getting discharged from a USAID-funded hospital. The facility had received a stop-work order.
- February 12: Groups suing to end the foreign aid freeze said that the Trump administration was “accelerating their terminations of contracts and suspensions of grants of USAID and State Department partners.”
- February 19: USAID employees and aid organizations reliant on its funding say that the agency’s payment system is still nonfunctional. The funding freeze continues despite a court order from U.S. District Judge Amir Ali restoring payments to organizations.
- Two nonprofit organizations impacted by the freeze have requested that Judge Ali hold Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Peter Marocco, the State Department’s foreign aid assistance director, in civil contempt for failing to comply with the court’s order.
- February 26: According to NBC News, the “Trump administration said in a court filing Wednesday it cannot comply with a federal judge’s order to release foreign aid funding by midnight, despite being directed to do so almost two weeks ago.” The administration expected it could free up $15 million by the midnight deadline, far from the $2 billion needed to be in compliance with Judge Amir Ali’s court order.
Community Health Centers
- February 4: Sixteen of Virginia’s community health centers have been unable to access federal grant money used to pay staff. The freeze caused several closures and resulted in patient transfers to open locations.
- February 9: Health centers in California and Virginia received notifications of the termination of federal grants related to HIV prevention care.
Electric Vehicle Programs
- February 5: The Washington State Department of Transportation said money for bridge repairs and electric charger projects have been blocked by the spending freeze.
- February 6: The Department of Transportation sent out a memo suspending its National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Program, stopping $5 billion in funding for charging station installations from reaching states.
Head Start
- February 4: Head Start programs across the country are still waiting for federal funding, despite promises from the Trump administration that the funding freeze would not affect the program.
Non-Profits
- January 31: Several Vermont non-profit organizations were unable to pay staff or were forced to layoff employees because federal funds were inaccessible.
- January 31: Non-profit organizations in West Virginia announced layoffs and scaled back operations as a result of the spending freeze.
Farmers
- February 10: After spending millions up front for planting and renewable energy projects, farmers have been left on the hook after the freeze halted USDA loans and grants guaranteed to cover the costs.
Government Employees
- February 10: Unions representing federal workers filed a notice of non-compliance, alleging that employees placed on administrative leave have yet to be reinstated to their positions, despite a DC District judge’s order issued the previous week.
Health Research
- February 10: According to Popular Information, the Trump administration is still maintaining the funding freeze at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), with almost all NIH grants remaining frozen.
- February 12: An internal NIH memo, also obtained by Popular Information, acknowledged that the previous freeze was illegal and violated a temporary restraining order, resuming grant funding for the time being.
- February 18: Health and Human Services officials have placed an indefinite hold on new submissions to the Federal Register, halting the legally required process that allows NIH to secure its funding. This pause on new submissions serves as a way to bypass Judge AliKhan’s court order that blocked the Trump administration’s spending freeze.