‘Violates the court’s preliminary injunction’: Federal judge savages FEMA and Kristi Noem for trying to ‘covertly’ carry out spending freeze, orders millions be delivered to states

Kristi Noem

As prisoners stand looking out from a cell, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks during a tour of the Terrorist Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, March 26, 2025 (AP Photo/Alex Brandon).

A federal judge on Friday enforced an injunction against the Trump administration by ordering the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to release millions of dollars in grants and disaster relief funds to states that sued to stop the federal funding freeze.

In a 15-page memorandum opinion and order, U.S. District Judge John McConnell, a Barack Obama appointee, found that FEMA, under the direction of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, violated a preliminary injunction barring the government from moving forward with its proposed “categorical” spending drawdowns.

The government argued they complied with the court’s orders but the judge said the “record makes clear” that a so-called “manual review process” instituted by FEMA after the litigation began was a backdoor way to implement the verboten freeze.

“Thus, FEMA’s manual review process violates the court’s preliminary injunction order,” McConnell wrote in the Friday enforcement order.