A federal judge dealt President Donald Trump's administration another loss after barring it from withholding transportation funds to states that fail to comply with federal immigration priorities.
U.S. District Chief Judge John J. McConnell Jr. imposed a permanent injunction Tuesday against the U.S. Department of Transportation after finding the administration had “blatantly overstepped” its authority by placing immigration-related conditions on federal funding, reported Rhode Island Current.
"None of the statutes cited by DOT expressly afford it the kind of sweeping authority it claims," McConnell wrote, "and those statutes governing specific transportation grant programs that contain lists of defined terms and conditions followed by catch-all provisions affording DOT latitude to determine additional terms and conditions cannot be reasonably read as conferring on DOT the power to make those additional terms and conditions utterly unrelated to either the preceding terms or the goals of the specific transportation grant program at issue."
“The Constitution demands the court set aside this lawless behavior,” McConnell added.
A group of 20 states, led by California, filed a lawsuit in Providence in May challenging Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy's directive laying out the administration's requirements for receiving congressionally approved funds.
“Federal grants come with a clear obligation to adhere to federal laws,” Duffy said when the directive was issued in April. “It shouldn’t be controversial — enforce our immigration rules, end anti-American DEI policies, and protect free speech.”
DOT attorneys argued the statute governing the agency allows it to impose conditions on grant agreements, but McConnell found the conditions were not related to transportation issues.
“Had Congress wished to try to make federal transportation funding contingent on cooperation with federal civil immigration enforcement, it could certainly have attempted to do so,” wrote McConnell, a Barack Obama appointee. "Absent any clear indication of such an attempt, the Court declines to find that DOT was vested with the sweeping power it asserts in setting a condition that is so obviously unrelated to the grant programs it administers."
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha, a Democrat who has served since 2019, praised McConnell's ruling as a blow against the president.
“It should go without saying that the ability of Rhode Islanders to travel on safe roads and bridges cannot hang on the political whims of one man,” Neronha said in a statement.
McConnell's ruling was the second loss he delivered against the Trump administration in recent days after ordering the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Friday to tap into contingency funds to prevent a lapse in benefits to households who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
The USDA promised Monday it would provide partial payments to beneficiaries, and plaintiffs in the case have asked McConnell to issue a temporary restraining order to ensure the agency follows through after Trump posted on social media that funding would not resume until the government reopens.
