Market Data 
A Rhode Island federal judge on Friday once again ordered the Trump administration to stop its freeze of Federal Emergency Management Agency grants to states.
US District Judge John McConnell agreed with the Democratic attorneys general for 22 states and Washington, DC, who brought a lawsuit against the administration, and ruled the administration was in violation of a previous court order.
The AGs alleged that FEMA was still freezing funds to states in violation of the court’s previous preliminary injunction, while the administration argued the agency was only implementing a “manual review process.”
In the judge’s 15-page order on Friday, he wrote that the states have presented evidence that “strongly suggests FEMA is implementing this manual review process based, covertly,” on one of President Donald Trump’s day-one executive orders that targeted sanctuary jurisdictions.
“The record makes clear that FEMA’s manual review process imposes an indefinite pause on the disbursement of federal funds to the States, based on funding freezes dictated” in part by Trump’s executive order, McConnell wrote in the order.
McConnell added that FEMA’s manual review process violated the court’s preliminary injunction order issued last month.
The judge ruled that the Trump administration “must immediately comply with the plain text” of his preliminary injunction order “not to pause or otherwise impede the disbursement of appropriated federal funds to the States.”
McConnell also ordered FEMA to direct notice of his order and of the court’s preliminary injunction order to FEMA’s leadership and all agency staff who administer grants and other federal financial assistance.
“FEMA shall provide confirmation of these notices, including the names of recipients of the notice, no later than 48 hours after this Order,” the judge wrote.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Business Insider.
Federal judges have already ruled against the Trump administration several times in the lawsuits brought against it since Trump was sworn in for a second term.
But legal experts told BI that judges have no real power to enforce their decisions.
“The president has much more force at his disposal than do the courts,” Cornell Law School professor Michael Dorf previously told BI.
