President Donald Trump addresses reporters before signing an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Monday, March 31, 2025 (Pool via AP).
A federal judge in Rhode Island has created a significant obstacle for President Donald Trump’s efforts to close down several government agencies that have congressional approval and are known for “supporting our libraries, museums, minority business enterprises, and the highly regarded federal mediation services.” In a move made Tuesday, the judge issued a preliminary injunction to stop their “dismantling,” as he put it.
The executive order aiming to cease operations of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS), the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA), and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) breaches the government’s Administrative Procedures Act due to the “arbitrary and capricious manner” in which it was enacted, stated U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell.
“It also disregards the fundamental constitutional role of each of the branches of our federal government,” wrote McConnell in his Tuesday memorandum and order. “Specifically, it ignores the unshakable principles that Congress makes the law and appropriates funds, and the Executive implements the law Congress enacted and spends the funds Congress appropriated,” the judge said.
Love true crime? Sign up for our newsletter, The Law&Crime Docket, to get the latest real-life crime stories delivered right to your inbox.
Trump issued the executive order in question, “Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy,” on March 14 and selected seven agencies to have their “non-statutory” components and functions “eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.” He also ordered the agencies to reduce the performance of their statutory functions and associated personnel “to the minimum presence and function required by law.”
A coalition of 21 states, all of them led by Democrats, filed a lawsuit accusing the Trump administration of violating the APA, “separation of powers principles” and Article II of the U.S. Constitution with the executive order.
McConnell, a Barack Obama appointee, had previously blocked the Trump administration from putting a freeze on disaster relief and grants doled out by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). In his order Tuesday, McConnell noted how “once again” he was confronted with a legal challenge by multiple states against an order that “attempts to dismantle congressionally sanctioned agencies and ignores congressionally appropriated funds.”
The harm caused to the plaintiffs, according to the judge, is apparent.
“The States have presented compelling evidence illustrating that the harms stemming from the dismantling of IMLS, MBDA, and FMCS are already unfolding or are certain to occur, in light the significant reduction in personnel available and competent to administer these agencies’ funds and services and the elimination of certain programs that served the States,” McConnell said Tuesday.
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha is co-leading the legal effort with New York Attorney General Letitia James and Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez. The other states include Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.
More from Law&Crime: ‘Plainly illegal’: Trump administration is intentionally ‘sabotaging’ HHS, putting ‘countless lives at risk,’ lawsuit states
“Today’s preliminary injunction is a critical win for the public interest,” Neronha said in a statement Tuesday.
“When the Trump Administration attempts to dismantle these agencies, it is making a targeted, concerted effort to prohibit everyday people from accessing their full potential,” the AG added. “They know that these agencies represent opportunities for the American people to better themselves through free access to knowledge through their local public libraries, to protect their labor and employment rights, and to help their small businesses grow. This Administration also knows that through suppressing and stifling access to opportunity, they can maintain and expand their power.”
Requests by Law&Crime for comment from the Justice Department were not successful Tuesday.
