‘Internally inconsistent’: Trump’s defense of birthright citizenship order ‘impossible to square’ with Constitution and Supreme Court, reply brief says

President Donald Trump speaks after signing an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump speaks after signing an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has blocked the Trump administration from implementing a policy that would freeze funding on distributions to federal aid programs following an emergency hearing earlier in the day.

U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan on Monday issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting the administration from “implementing, giving effect to, or reinstating under a different name” the directives in a controversial Office of Management and Budget (OMB) memo issued last week “with respect to the disbursement of Federal funds under all open awards.”

The memo at the heart of the litigation purported to make good on a series of executive orders issued by President Donald Trump outlining the administration’s spending priorities. It stated, in part (bold in original):

[T]o the extent permissible under applicable law, Federal agencies must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal.

The directive caused mass confusion throughout entities dependent on the federal government for funding as entire payment portals and websites went dark overnight.

In her 30-page order granting the restraining order, AliKhan said the government was effectively violating the doctrine of separation of powers.

“Defendants’ actions in this case potentially run roughshod over a ‘bulwark of the Constitution’ by interfering with Congress’s appropriation of federal funds,” she wrote. “OMB ordered a nationwide freeze on pre-existing financial commitments without considering any of the specifics of the individual loans, grants, or funds. It did not indicate when that freeze would end (if it was to end at all). And it attempted to wrest the power of the purse away from the only branch of government entitled to wield it. If Defendants’ actions violated the separation of powers, that would certainly be arbitrary and capricious under the APA.”

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