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Updated January 29, 2025, at 1:05 a.m.
A federal U.S. district judge blocked President Donald Trump’s plan to pause funding for federal grants and loans just minutes before it was set to go into effect.
The block, issued by Judge Loren L. AliKhan, pauses the freeze for any “open awards” that the federal government had already approved until next Monday. It also set a hearing for further arguments for Monday morning.
Trump’s order to pause federal funding was announced in a two-page memo from the Office of Management and Budget circulated to federal agencies Monday night. The freeze was designed to give the White House “time to review agency programs” to ensure they comply with the slew of executive orders Trump issued in the first days of his second term.
The judge’s decision to pause Trump’s order came just minutes after Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 notified Harvard affiliates that some federally funded research initiatives would have to shut down to comply with the order.
A Harvard spokesperson did not immediately comment on whether the block will affect the status of those research initiatives.
AliKhan issued the stay while she considers a lawsuit filed by a group of nonprofit organizations in federal court, requesting the order be revoked on the grounds that the OMB does not have “legal authority to gut every program in the federal government.”
The stay does not prevent the Trump administration from forcing agencies to stop issuing new grants.
The OMB memo — authored by Matthew J. Vaeth, the office’s acting director — took aim at diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, calling them a “waste of taxpayer dollars.”
While the last-minute order from the judge notably does not challenge the constitutionality of President Donald Trump’s order, the order is likely to see a slew of legal action.
State attorneys from seven different states — led by New York Attorney General Letitia James — threatened to sue the White House in a Tuesday morning press conference, saying the directive was “unconstitutional.”
“These chaos cuts jeopardize resources that millions of Americans rely on,” James wrote in a post on X.
Several Harvard affiliates criticized Trump’s order shortly after it was announced.
Jody Freeman, a Harvard Law School professor, wrote in a BlueSky post that the order is part of a Republican effort to “take all the power that Congress thinks it has.”
Harvard Law School Professor Noah Feldman ’92 called the freeze “unlawful” in a Tuesday op-ed in Bloomberg.
“It would violate federal law and undermine the constitutional principle that Congress, not the president, has the power of the purse,” Feldman wrote.
—Staff writer Dhruv T. Patel can be reached at dhruv.patel@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @dhruvtkpatel.
—Staff writer Grace E. Yoon can be reached at grace.yoon@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @graceunkyoon.
