Ninth Circuit upholds block on federal grant conditions

The Ninth Circuit largely upheld an injunction blocking the Trump administration from attaching conditions on gender ideology, abortion, and immigration enforcement to federal grants already allocated by Congress. The panel, in a ruling authored by Judge Margaret McKeown, sided with a coalition of local governments including Seattle-area King County, San Francisco, Boston, and New York City, who argued the Departments of Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, and Health and Human Services exceeded their statutory authority.

The court carved out one exception, allowing conditions requiring compliance with federal antidiscrimination law under Title VI, while keeping the rest of the challenged conditions blocked. Affected funding includes affordable housing, homelessness services, tuberculosis prevention, and public health preparedness programs.

Judge Patrick Bumatay dissented, arguing the majority substituted its policy preferences for the law and accusing the panel of forgetting the judiciary's limited role. The Department of Transportation, for its part, claimed the antidiscrimination carve-out as a win, framing the ruling as validation of an administration position that mostly lost.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.