A federal judge on Tuesday blocked President Donald Trump\u2019s administration from firing workers and taking other steps to shut down federal agencies that fund museums and libraries, mediate labor disputes and support minority-owned businesses.
\nUS District Judge John McConnell in Providence, Rhode Island, agreed with 21 mostly Democrat-led states that Trump\u2019s March executive order directing that the agencies effectively be wiped out violated the US Constitution.
\n\u201cThis executive order … 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,\u201d wrote McConnell, an appointee of Democratic former President Barack Obama.
\nThe judge halted Trump\u2019s order from being implemented at the US Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Minority Business Development Agency, and the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service pending the outcome of the case.
\nMcConnell did not order the agencies to take any specific steps. The judge told the states to consult with the Trump administration and submit a more detailed order for his approval.
\nTrump in his order directed that those agencies and four others be reduced \u201cto the minimum presence and function required by law.\u201d A judge in Washington, D.C. last week had separately blocked the museum and library agency from being shut down.
\nWhite House spokesman Davis Ingle said McConnell had defied US Supreme Court precedent by blocking Trump from closing elements of the federal bureaucracy.
\n\u201cThe lower court\u2019s outrageous order will not be the last say on the matter,\u201d Ingle said in a statement.
\nRhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha, a Democrat whose office is leading the lawsuit, called the decision a critical win for the public.
\n\u201cWhen the Trump Administration attempts to dismantle these agencies, it is making a targeted, concerted effort to prohibit everyday people from accessing their full potential,\u201d Neronha said in a statement.
\nTrump\u2019s executive order was part of his broader effort to dramatically shrink the federal government and slash government spending. Tens of thousands of federal workers have been fired, placed on leave indefinitely or accepted buyouts to leave their jobs.
\nAt the three agencies involved in Tuesday\u2019s case, virtually all employees were placed on administrative leave shortly after Trump issued his executive order, according to court filings.
\nThe states in their lawsuit filed in April say that because Congress created the agencies and set their funding levels, Trump had no power to order that their work be halted.
\nMcConnell on Tuesday agreed. Federal law includes a mechanism for the president to return unneeded funding to Congress, the judge said, but Trump failed to follow that process.
\nState libraries and museums have abandoned programs and implemented hiring freezes, business development offices are curbing training and other support programs, and state agencies have fewer options to mediate disputes with unions, McConnell said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A federal judge on Tuesday blocked President Donald Trump\u2019s administration from firing workers and taking other steps to shut down federal agencies that fund museums and libraries, mediate labor disputes and support minority-owned businesses. US District Judge John McConnell in Providence, Rhode Island, agreed with 21 mostly Democrat-led states that Trump\u2019s March executive order directing …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":80716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80706"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80717,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80706\/revisions\/80717"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}