TRO – State Attorneys General Blog

February 24, 2025February 24, 2025 by Daniel R. Walworth

Court Extends TROs Enjoining Enforcement of NIH Rate Change within 22 Plaintiff States

By Dan Walworth, Rolando Sanchez, Frederick Ball, Geoffrey Goodale and Sara Smith

Since taking office, the Trump Administration has taken steps to reshape the United States’ federal funding infrastructure. One such action relates to the National Institutes of Health’s (“NIH”) rate change, imposing a 15% cap for indirect costs, for new grants and for existing grants awarded to institutions of higher education (“IHEs”). This rate change, which represents a drastic reduction from historical rates normally negotiated by grant recipients, will impact ongoing research programs and clinical trials, and will have a long-term impact on the United States’ research infrastructure and abilities.

On February 10, 2025, the day the rate change was intended to go into effect, three lawsuits were filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts challenging the rate change. The lawsuits were filed by a group of stakeholders, including twenty-two states, thirteen universities, three university associations and five associations. Also on February 10, 2025, a district court judge granted two temporary restraining orders (“TROs”), enjoining enforcement of the rate change within the 22 Plaintiff states, and enjoining enforcement nationwide with respect to institutions. On February 21, 2025, following a hearing on the Plaintiffs’ motions for injunctive relief, the district court ordered that the TROs entered on February 10, 2025, are extended and will remain in effect until further order of the Court.

February 11, 2025February 11, 2025 by Daniel R. Walworth

Court Rules Trump Administration Violated TRO Enjoining Administration’s Funding Freeze

On February 10, 2025, Judge John McConnell of the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island granted the motion of the state attorneys general for enforcement of the January 31, 2025, temporary restraining order (TRO) relating to the Trump Administration’s proposed “pause” or “freeze” of federal grant funding payments.

The January 31, 2025, TRO prohibits all pauses or freezes on federal funding based on the OMB Directive. Judge McConnell found the Trump administration in violation of this TRO. His February 10, 2025, order provides that “[t]he States have presented evidence in th[eir] motion that the Defendants in some cases have continued to improperly freeze federal funds and refused to resume disbursement of appropriated federal funds.” Such pauses in funding violate the express terms of the TRO, the Court said.

The February 10, 2025, order requires the Trump administration, during the pendency of the TRO, to restore frozen funding, to end any federal funding pause, to take every step necessary to effectuate and comply with the TRO, to immediately restore withheld federal funds, and to resume the funding of institutes and agencies, such as the National Institute for Health.

February 3, 2025February 3, 2025 by Daniel R. Walworth

Court Grants State Attorneys General TRO Enjoining Administration’s Funding “Freeze”

On January 31, 2025, Judge John McConnell of the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island granted the TRO sought by 22 state attorneys general and the Attorney General for the District of Columbia challenging the Trump Administration’s “pause” or “freeze” of grant funding payments.

The Court found that the attorneys general had a likelihood of success on the merits on their claims that the pause violated the Administrative Procedure Act, is arbitrary and capricious; violates separation of powers; and violates the Constitution’s Spending, Presentment, and Take Care clauses. The Court reached its determination “[b]ecause of the breadth and ambiguity of the ‘pause,’” and therefore anchored its reasoning “based on the effect it will have on many—but perhaps not all—grants and programs it is intended to cover.”

In rejecting the Administration’s argument that the Rescission Memo from OMB mooted the case, the Court relied upon a tweet by the White House Press Secretary –and an email from the EPA sent after the Rescission Memo stating that money would not be disbursed while the EPA determined how to implement the funding “freeze” memo from OMB. The Court found that “the OMB Directive that the States challenge here [is] still in full force and effect.”

To address the Administration’s statements that the “freeze” or “pause” would continue notwithstanding the Rescission Memo, the scope of the TRO prohibits the Trump Administration Defendants from “reissuing, adopting, implementing, or otherwise giving effect to the OMB Directive under any other name or title or through any other Defendants (or agency supervised, administered, or controlled by any Defendant), such as the continued implementation identified by the White House Press Secretary’s statement of January 29, 2025.”