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U.S. President Donald Trump arrives to sign the Laken Riley Act into law in the East Room of the White House in Washington on January 29, 2025 (Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Sipa USA/Sipa via AP Images).
On Thursday, a federal judge indicated her intention to prevent the Trump administration from cutting billions in essential public health funding that was initially distributed during the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequently upheld by Congress. She noted that the case presented a substantial amount of evidence of “irreparable harm.”
“The plaintiffs have made a compelling argument for their likelihood of success in this case, so I will grant the temporary restraining order,” declared U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy, as reported by PBS News. “The probability of winning on the merits is very high,” McElroy stated, according to The Hill. “There is an extensive record filled with claims 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.
“These termination notices … immediately triggered chaos for State and local health jurisdictions,” the group’s complaint alleges. “This funding provides essential support for a wide range of urgent public health needs such as identifying, tracking, and addressing infectious diseases; ensuring access to immunizations; fortifying emergency preparedness; providing mental health and substance abuse services; and modernizing critical public health infrastructure.”
The states are targeting the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and include Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia; the governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania are also suing.
“We just got a court order to temporarily block Trump’s illegal cuts to billions in vital state health funding,” wrote New York Attorney General Letitia James on X Thursday after McElroy — a Trump appointee who serves on Rhode Island’s federal bench — handed down her order. “We’re going to continue our lawsuit and fight to ensure states can provide the medical services Americans need,” James said.
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According to the AGs suing Trump administration officials, “the foreseeable end of the COVID-19 pandemic” is not a lawful basis to terminate public health funding “for cause.”
“Defendants have never alleged, much less demonstrated, any failure by fund recipients to comply with the applicable terms and conditions of the grants and agreements,” their complaint says. “Nor did Congress limit the funding at issue here to the period of the COVID-19 emergency.”
Congress made “wide-ranging public health investments” extending beyond COVID-19 and the immediate public health emergency, according to the states suing Trump. After the pandemic, Congress reviewed COVID-19-related laws and rescinded $27 billion in funds, but chose to leave the $11 billion in place that’s now being targeted, the AGs say.
“The Trump administration’s illegal and irresponsible decision to claw back life-saving health funding is an attack on the well-being of millions of Americans,” James said in a statement Tuesday. “Slashing this funding now will reverse our progress on the opioid crisis, throw our mental health systems into chaos, and leave hospitals struggling to care for patients. My office is taking immediate action to stop this heartless and shortsighted move and ensure these life-saving programs remain intact.”
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