President Donald Trump’s administration cannot rescind $600 million in public health grants allocated to four Democratic-led states, for now, a federal judge in Illinois ruled Thursday.
California, Colorado, Illinois and Minnesota sued Wednesday to try to block the planned funding cuts to programs that track disease outbreaks and study health outcomes of LGBTQ+ people and communities of color in major cities.
U.S. District Judge Manish Shah stopped the cuts from taking effect for 14 days, saying in his order that the states “have shown that they would suffer irreparable harm from the agency action.” That will keep grant money flowing from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to state and city health departments and their partner organizations while the challenge proceeds.
The first batch of grants could have been pulled Thursday if the judge had not intervened, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said.
The Department of Health and Human Services said the grants are being terminated because they do not reflect CDC priorities, which were revised last year to align with the administration's shift away from health equity, the idea that certain populations may need additional support to eliminate health disparities.
Much of the money helped cities fight the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, especially among gay and bisexual men, adolescents and ethnic minorities.
Federal health officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the judge’s order.
Officials in the four states are among Trump’s strongest political foes and view the cuts as retaliation for opposing his immigration enforcement crackdown. All have been targets of other federal cuts, including for food assistance programs, child care subsidies and electric vehicle infrastructure.
Their lawsuit, led by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, argues that the health care cuts violate the Constitution by imposing retroactive conditions on funding that Congress already awarded.
“Targeting four Democrat-run states that are standing up to his completely unrelated immigration policies is a transparent attempt to bully us into compliance,” Raoul said. “The president may be playing politics with critical public health funding, including more than $100 million to Illinois, but our residents are the ones who pay the price.”
The attorneys general say the loss of funding would force them to lay off hundreds of public health workers.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said they will seek to extend the judge’s pause for the duration of the lawsuit.
Courts have temporarily blocked similar efforts by the Trump administration, including a plan to cut off billions for child care subsidies and other programs for low-income families in the four states, plus New York.
FILE - Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump's choice to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, appears before the Senate Finance Committee for his confirmation hearing, at the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, file)
FILE - Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul speaks at a news conference in Chicago, Monday, Oct. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh,File)
FILE - A sign marks the entrance to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, File)
A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to make arrangements to allow some of the Venezuelan migrants deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador to return to the U.S. at the government's expense.
The case has been a legal flashpoint in the administration’s sweeping immigration crackdown. It started in March after President Donald Trump invoked the 18th century Alien Enemies Act to send Venezuelan migrants accused of being gang members to a mega-prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT.
In Thursday's ruling, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington criticized the White House’s response to his earlier order that it come up with a plan to give the men a chance to challenge their removals.
“Apparently not interested in participating in this process, the Government’s responses essentially told the Court to pound sand,” Boasberg wrote. Nominated to the federal bench by President Barack Obama, the judge has repeatedly clashed with the administration over the deportations.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson blasted Boasberg’s ruling, saying in a statement it was “an absurd, unlawful ruling from a far-left judicial activist trying to undermine the President’s lawful authority to carry about deportations.”
“Americans elected President Trump based on his promise to deport criminal illegal aliens and Make America Safe Again,” she said. "Boasberg has no right to stop the will of the American people, and this will not be the final say on the matter.”
The 137 men were later returned to Venezuela in a prisoner exchange brokered by the United States.
Lee Gelernt, their attorney in the U.S., said at a court hearing on Monday that plaintiffs' attorneys are in touch with a handful of them who have since managed to leave Venezuela and are now in a third country. These men are interested in clearing their names, he said.
Boasberg's order says U.S. officials must provide the men in third countries who wish to fly back to U.S. with a boarding letter. The government must also cover their airfare. He noted the men would be detained upon their return.
Those men and the migrants who remain in Venezuela can also file new legal documents arguing the presidential proclamation under which they were deported illegally invoked the 18th century wartime law, the judge ruled. The legal filings can also challenge their designation as members of the Tren de Aragua gang.
Boasberg said he could decide later whether to require hearings and how to conduct them, but it was up to the government to “remedy the wrong that it perpetrated here and to provide a means for doing so.”
“Were it otherwise, the Government could simply remove people from the United States without providing any process and then, once they were in a foreign country, deny them any right to return for a hearing or opportunity to present their case from abroad,” he wrote.
In March, Trump officials flew the Venezuelan men to the prison, despite a verbal order from Boasberg for the aircraft to turn around. Boasberg subsequently started a contempt investigation, though the dramatic battle between the judicial and executive branches has been paused by an appeals court.
The administration has denied violating his order.
Gelernt said in a statement on Thursday Boasberg had “begun the process of giving these men their right to challenge their removal.”
"Remarkably, although the government does not dispute the men were denied due process, it still was not willing to do what was right without a court order,” he said.
FILE - A mega-prison known as Detention Center Against Terrorism (CECOT) stands in Tecoluca, El Salvador, March 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez, File)
