By Jack Queen (Reuters) -President Donald Trump’s agenda has partially stalled in court as judges pause major policy rollouts around immigration, spending and social issues, but his administration has notched some important wins as it seeks to dramatically shrink the federal bureaucracy and cut foreign aid spending. Here is a look at where some of […]
Politics
Factbox-Where do the legal cases against Trump’s executive orders stand?
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By Jack Queen
(Reuters) -President Donald Trump’s agenda has partially stalled in court as judges pause major policy rollouts around immigration, spending and social issues, but his administration has notched some important wins as it seeks to dramatically shrink the federal bureaucracy and cut foreign aid spending.
Here is a look at where some of the key lawsuits against the administration stand.
CUTS TO FOREIGN AID
A divided U.S. Supreme Court on March 5 declined to let the Trump administration withhold payments to foreign aid organizations for work they already performed, a setback for Trump’s efforts to pull the plug on American humanitarian projects around the world.
The justices voted 5-4 to uphold a lower court decision ordering the administration to promptly release funds to recipients of grants from the U.S. Agency for International Development and State Department.
Separately, in a win for Trump, a federal judge on February 21 cleared the way for the administration to put more than 2,000 USAID workers on leave.
IMMIGRATION CRACKDOWN
Four different federal judges have temporarily blocked the Trump administration from implementing an executive order that would curtail automatic birthright citizenship for people born in the U.S., and two appeals courts have declined to override those decisions.
A federal judge in Seattle, Washington, said the executive order was “blatantly unconstitutional,” and a judge in Washington, D.C. said automatic birthright citizenship is the “law and tradition” of the U.S. and will remain so while the case plays out.
At least nine lawsuits have been filed by immigrant rights groups and Democratic state attorneys general seeking to permanently block the policy, and at least 20 more have been filed challenging Trump’s efforts to crack down on illegal immigration and curtail refugee programs.
FREEZING FUNDS AND FIRING WORKERS
Two judges have paused the Trump administration’s freeze on trillions of dollars worth of federal loans, grants and other financial assistance, with one saying the policy was “potentially catastrophic” for organizations that rely on government funding.
On March 5, a U.S. board that reviews the firings of federal employees ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture to temporarily reinstate thousands of workers who lost their jobs as part of Trump’s push to slash the government headcount.
Earlier, on February 27, a California federal judge temporarily blocked the administration from firing thousands of recently hired employees at the U.S. Department of Defense and other federal agencies.
On March 6, a Washington federal judge reinstated a National Labor Relations Board member fired by Trump, finding the president did not have authority to unilaterally remove her. The NLRB investigates allegations of unfair labor practices by employers.
ELON MUSK’S DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY
More than a dozen lawsuits have been filed seeking to block billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency from accessing sensitive government data and directing mass firings of federal workers.
Federal judges have allowed DOGE to recommend firings and access databases at certain federal agencies, including the U.S. Education Department and Labor Department. But two judges have separately barred DOGE from accessing Treasury Department systems used to process trillions of dollars in government payments.
Lawsuits have also been filed challenging Musk’s authority to direct firings and budget cuts and some judges have raised concerns about lack of transparency about Musk’s official role and authority over DOGE.
CUTTING HEALTH RESEARCH FUNDING
A federal judge on March 5 blocked the administration from sharply cutting federal grants for medical research through the National Institutes of Health, which universities and Democrat-led states said could lead to lab closures and curtail important medical studies.
On February 11, a federal judge ordered the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Food and Drug Administration to restore health information websites that were abruptly taken offline after Trump ordered them scrubbed of “gender ideology extremism.”
ENDING TRANSGENDER PROTECTIONS
Two federal judges have temporarily blocked the Trump administration from enforcing executive orders threatening to end federal funding for medical providers who provide care that aids in gender transition for people under the age of 19.
Rights groups have also filed lawsuits seeking to block the Trump administration from excluding transgender people from the military, though judges overseeing those cases have not yet ruled on requests to temporarily block the policy.
A federal judge has also blocked federal prison officials from moving 12 transgender people to facilities corresponding to their birth sex.
(Reporting by Jack Queen in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder, David Bario, Deepa Babington, Cynthia Osterman and Sandra Maler)