Judge Manish Shah, a federal judge in Illinois, issued a temporary order stopping Trump administration officials from rescinding $600 million in public health grants that had already been allocated to California, Colorado, Illinois and Minnesota, according to an Associated Press report. The order bars the cuts from taking effect for 14 days, setting a short pause while the states challenge the planned rescissions in court.
In his ruling, Shah said the states “have shown that they would suffer irreparable harm from the agency action,” a formulation that kept grant money flowing from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to state and city health departments and their partner organizations while the lawsuit moves forward, the report said. The first batch of grants could have been pulled Thursday if the judge had not intervened, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said.
The states sued Wednesday to try to prevent the funding changes, arguing that the federal action violates the Constitution by imposing retroactive conditions on funds Congress had already awarded, according to the report. The suit was led by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, and it named the Trump administration’s health-grants plan as the subject of the restraint request.
The Associated Press report said the Department of Health and Human Services told the states that the grants are being terminated because they do not reflect CDC priorities revised last year. The report said those revised priorities were meant to align with the administration’s shift away from health equity—the idea that some populations may need additional support to eliminate health disparities.
Much of the money, the report said, supported city and state efforts to track and respond to disease outbreaks and to study health outcomes, including programs focused on LGBTQ+ people and communities of color in major cities. The report also said the grants helped cities fight the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, especially among gay and bisexual men, adolescents and ethnic minorities.
The states’ filings and statements framed the funding cuts as politically motivated retaliation. Raoul said targeting the four Democrat-run states was “a transparent attempt to bully us into compliance,” arguing that the president was playing politics with public health funding even as residents would bear the cost. The report also said the attorneys general argued the loss of funding would force them to lay off hundreds of public health workers.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison told reporters the states would seek to extend the judge’s pause for the duration of the lawsuit. The Associated Press report did not say when the courts would issue a longer-term decision beyond the temporary 14-day halt, and federal health officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Shah’s order.