Court rules funding halt 'improper'

A federal appeals court on Monday largely upheld a ruling that blocked a “sweeping and unprecedented” freeze on trillions of dollars in government financial assistance that President Donald Trump's administration instituted early last year.

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A three-judge panel of the Boston-based 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Democratic attorneys general from 22 states and the District of Columbia in finding that the White House’s budget office had directed federal agencies to implement a categorical freeze on funding that was likely improper.

Chief US Circuit Judge David Barron said the Office of Management and Budget “directed the agency defendants to freeze such funds without considering an obvious aspect of the problem — namely, the reliance interests of the recipients of the obligated federal funds that were to be frozen.”