'Big victory': Advocates cheer as Trump dealt a blow in mass spending freeze lawsuit

A federal judge has blocked President Donald Trump's spending freeze, in what advocates cheered was a "big victory" for democracy and the rule of law.

A slate of judges issued pauses to Trump's executive order stopping all government funding. A federal judge on Monday denied an attempt to dismiss the restraining order and issued demands for information that must be released to the public.

Democracy Docket founder Marc Elias posted on Bluesky celebrating what he called a "big victory for Democracy Docket and their clients. Also a win for democracy and the rule of law."

"ORDERED that Defendants must provide written notice of the court's temporary restraining order to all agencies to which OMB Memorandum M-25-13 was addressed," the ruling said.

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"The written notice shall instruct those agencies that they may not take any steps to implement, give effect to, or reinstate under a different name the directives in OMB Memorandum M-25-13 with respect to the disbursement of Federal Funds under all open awards. It shall also instruct those agencies to release any disbursement on open awards that were paused due to OMB Memorandum M-25-13..."