The Trump administration is appealing a judge’s order requiring federal agencies to restore nearly three dozen frozen climate, agricultural and energy grants.
The Justice Department is asking the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to intervene after a federal district court in South Carolina denied the administration’s request earlier this week to delay a permanent injunction reinstating the blocked funds, as it continues to challenge the court’s jurisdiction over the case.
Judge Richard Gergel, an Obama pick, found that the Sustainability Institute and other nonprofit groups challenging federal grant freezes had provided “substantial, highly persuasive evidence” that agencies froze the grants because they disliked Congress’ appropriations and those agencies were violating the Constitution’s separation of powers.
“The Court finds it necessary to maintain supervision over the continued functioning of the unlawfully frozen or terminated grants because Defendants in this and parallel litigation have provided shifting post hoc justifications for their actions, at times appearing to be as a means to evade court orders,” Gergel wrote in a May 20 order.
