U.S. President Donald Trump arrives before signing the Laken Riley Act into law in the East Room at the White House in Washington on Jan. 29, 2025 (Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Sipa USA/Sipa via AP Images).
A federal judge on Thursday said she would block the Trump administration from eliminating billions in “critical public health funding” that was doled out during the COVID-19 pandemic and kept in place by Congress, declaring “the record is voluminous” with allegations of “irreparable harm.”
“They make a case, a strong case, for the fact that they will succeed on the merits, so I’m going to grant the temporary restraining order,” said U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy in an order from the bench, according to PBS News. “The likelihood of success on the merits is extremely strong,” McElroy said, according to The Hill. “The record is voluminous … with allegations of irreparable harm.”
The Trump administration is being sued by attorneys general from nearly half the U.S., with 23 states teaming up to file a lawsuit this week over the president’s cancellation of $11 billion in federal funds doled out during the pandemic. Trump chose to do away with the federal funding late last month, with it being officially scrubbed away on March 24.
If the grants are not restored, the attorneys general say “key public health programs” and initiatives that address “ongoing and emerging public health needs” in the various states that are suing will have to be dissolved or disbanded in the coming weeks and months — with large numbers of state and local public health employees and contractors being shown the door.
