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Parent and child talking with nurse at homeless shelter
The order comes in a lawsuit brought by a nationwide coalition of groups serving survivors of domestic and sexual violence, LGBTQ+ youth, and people experiencing homelessness.
A federal judge in Rhode Island has granted a temporary restraining order blocking conditions the Trump administration had placed on grants to organizations serving survivors of domestic and sexual violence, LGBTQ+ youth, and people experiencing homelessness.
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U.S. District Judge Melissa DuBose issued the order Thursday in Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence v. Kennedy, which was filed just four days earlier. While the case is named for the Rhode Island group, it was brought by a nationwide coalition of organizations that serve these populations.
The plaintiffs will submit a proposal for the scope of the restraining order for the court’s review, focused on the organizations that must decide whether to accept the conditions of Donald Trump’s orders as soon as Wednesday, according to a press release from Democracy Forward, one of the legal groups representing them.
The defendants in their lawsuit include the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and its secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.; the Department of Housing and Urban Development and its secretary, Scott Turner; and other federal government departments and officials.
Their suit challenges the executive orders that place restrictions on grants administered by HHS and HUD, with the administration denying funding to organizations with diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and those supposedly promoting so-called gender ideology, that is, recognition of transgender, nonbinary, and intersex identities.
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The suit notes that the grants were authorized by Congress and that “the executive branch cannot unilaterally leverage funding Congress appropriated for use on programs Congress created to advance the executive’s own policy goals.”
“The separation of powers does not allow that — and, here, Congress did not authorize the Departments to impose the new funding conditions,” the suit continues. “What’s more, the new conditions violate due process in using vague terms that provide Plaintiffs and their members no clarity on the actual conduct that is prohibited. They also violate the First Amendment by forcing grantees to voice the Administration’s views on gender and by chilling grantees from promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion even when not using federal funds.”
The plaintiffs issued this statement through Democracy Forward: “We welcome the court’s decision to grant our motion to halt the Trump-Vance administration’s unlawful and dangerous funding restrictions. These conditions threaten to undermine decades of progress in supporting survivors of violence, LGBTQI+ youth, and unhoused individuals. Our organizations exist to serve everyone with compassion and equity, and we will not be forced to choose between our values and mission and the communities we serve. The court’s order is a critical step in protecting life-saving programs and ensuring that the providers across the country can continue their work without political interference. We brought this case because we have seen firsthand the harm these restrictions would cause. This ruling affirms what we have long known, that the law does not permit any government to use its funding power to force service providers to abandon their core principles.”
Besides Democracy Forward, the plaintiffs are represented by Jacobson Lawyers Group, National Women’s Law Center, Lawyers’ Committee for Rhode Island, and the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Rhode Island.
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