Federal government fights RI judge’s order halting Trump’s federal funding freeze. What to know.

PROVIDENCE – The federal government has moved to halt a federal court order barring it from pausing federal spending, arguing that the judge’s directive is unprecedented and undermines President Donald Trump’s authority.

The U.S. Department of Justice on Monday appealed U.S. District Court Chief Judge John J. McConnell Jr.’s orders.

That order stopped the government from withholding grant money and instructed the government to restore any frozen funding immediately.

What the federal government wants

Federal prosecutors, including U.S. Attorney Zachary Cunha, are asking the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to grant an administrative stay by Tuesday morning in a flurry of filings with the court.

“This appeal arises from an extraordinary and unprecedented assertion of power by a single district court judge to superintend and control the Executive Branch’s spending of federal funds, in clear violation of the Constitution’s separation of powers. To put a halt to this intolerable judicial overreach, this court should stay the orders under review pending disposition of this appeal, and should enter an immediate administrative stay of the orders until the motion for stay pending appeal is resolved,” the government wrote, adopting arguments mirroring those launched by billionaire Elon Musk and Vice President J.D. Vance on social media.

“The court appeared to acknowledge that its order prohibited federal agencies from taking entirely lawful actions, such as delaying the issuance of funding that might be tainted by fraud or declining to issue funds that are entirely discretionary. But to engage in any of those lawful activities, or a host of others across the multitude of programsadministered by the defendant agencies, the government must now go to the district court for preclearance,” it said.

States, including Rhode Island, and the District of Columbia are opposing the action, arguing that the government is barred from appealing the temporary restraining order and should first have requested relief from McConnell. A hearing to extend the order is set for Feb. 21 before McConnell.

This is a developing story and will be updated

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Feds fight RI judge’s order halting Trump spending freeze. What comes next?