US court won't halt order requiring Trump admin to unfreeze federal cash

A federal appeals court on Tuesday refused to halt a judge's order requiring the Trump administration to release billions of dollars in federal grants and loans. States say the money remains frozen even after a court blocked a sweeping pause on federal funding.

The Boston-based 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals turned back the emergency appeal, though it said it expected the lower court judge to act quickly to clarify his order.

The Justice Department argued the sweeping lower court order to keep all federal grants and loans flowing was intolerable judicial overreach.

That ruling came from US District Court Judge John McConnell in Rhode Island, the first judge to find that the administration had disobeyed a court order.

McConnell is presiding over a lawsuit from nearly two dozen states filed after the administration issued a boundary-pushing memo purporting to halt all federals grants and loans, worth trillions of dollars. The plan sparked chaos around the country.

The administration has since rescinded that memo, but McConnell found Monday that not all federal grants and loans had been restored.