Judge temporarily blocks Trump administration’s new transit and homelessness grant conditions

By GENE JOHNSON Associated Press SEATTLE AP A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from imposing new conditions on hundreds of millions of dollars worth of mass transit grants for the Seattle area or homelessness services grants for Boston New York San Francisco and other local governments The new conditions were designed to further President Donald Trump s efforts to eliminate diversity equity and inclusion policies coerce local executives into assisting with the administration s mass deportation efforts and cut off information about lawful abortions according to the lawsuit filed last week by eight cities and counties Related Articles The EU publishes a US product hit list and prepares for WTO action against Trump s tariffs Watch President Trump set to announce deal deal with UK Battenfeld Duplicitous Democrats question Sen John Fetterman s mental fitness Lucas Whitmer gets it right put people before politics FBI director says bureau requirements more funding than what Trump administration budget proposal calls for The administration argued that Senior U S District Judge Barbara Rothstein in Seattle did not have jurisdiction over the lawsuit because it was essentially a contract dispute that should have been brought in the Court of Federal Declares an argument the judge rejected Rothstein wrote that the local governments had shown they were likely to win the incident because the conditions being imposed on the grants had not been approved by Congress were not closely related to the purposes of the grants and would not make the administration of the grants more efficient Defendants have put Plaintiffs in the position of having to choose between accepting conditions that they believe are unconstitutional and risking the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grant funding including funding that they have already budgeted and are committed to spending Rothstein wrote Her order blocks U S Housing and Urban Rise and the Federal Transportation Administration for days from enforcing the new grant conditions or withholding or delaying funding awarded under the grants The local jurisdictions declared they would seek a longer-term block in the meantime The Trump administration did not directly respond to an email seeking comment King County which includes Seattle sued over changes to grant conditions for homelessness services as well as mass transit funding that helps pay for maintenance of the region s light rail system Boston and New York Pierce and Snohomish Counties in Washington the city and county of San Francisco and Santa Clara County in California all sued over the changes to homelessness services grants The present day s ruling is a positive first step in our challenge to federal overreach King County Executive Shannon Braddock explained in a message We will continue to stand up against unlawful actions to protect our residents and the services they rely on The conditions highlighted in the plaintiff s restraining order motion included barring grant recipients from using the funding in a way that promotes illegal immigration or abets policies that seek to shield illegal aliens from deportation Another condition bars them from using the funding to promote elective abortions AP reporter Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed to this description