States say Trump continues to flout court orders by tying FEMA funding to ICE cooperation

Filed 1h ago · Via Courthouse News · The Buffoon Desk

THIS STORY IS SCORED

Fast Feel Banana Peel

Alexander Nakarada · creatorchords.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: State Library and Archives of Florida · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

A coalition of states filed a motion accusing the Trump administration of again tying FEMA disaster and counterterrorism funding, nearly $1 billion worth, to cooperation with ICE, despite a federal judge's order last year permanently barring exactly that. The states say the 2026 fiscal year grant conditions are worded almost identically to terms U.S. District Judge William Smith already struck down, including bars on restricting ICE access to local detainees and gag clauses on publicizing enforcement operations.

Smith had already scolded the administration once this cycle for trying a workaround condition he called a 'ham-handed attempt to bully the states,' and ruled the original policy violated the Administrative Procedure Act. With Smith now retired, the states are asking a new judge to enforce the standing injunction rather than litigate the identical clauses from scratch; DHS did not respond to a request for comment.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

A judge tells an agency no, the agency tries again with different punctuation, and somehow this counts as a fresh legal question instead of the same answer twice. States with hurricanes and wildfires to worry about are stuck arguing procedure instead of handing out sandbags. If a contractor pulled this on a zoning board they'd lose their permit before lunch; here it just gets refiled under a new case number.

Source: Read the original at Courthouse News → Scored: Fast Feel Banana Peel · Alexander Nakarada · CC BY 4.0