DOJ Asks Appeals Court to End ‘Judicial Overreach’ on Trump Admin’s Funding Freezes

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on Tuesday asked a Boston-based appeals court to place a hold on a federal judge’s decision that barred the Trump administration from freezing federal grants, loans, and other financial assistance. In court papers submitted with the First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday, the DOJ accused Rhode Island-based U.S. District Judge John McConnell of engaging in “intolerable judicial overreach” when he ruled that the administration had defied a prior ruling issued on Jan. 31 when it continued to withhold billions of dollars in federal funding. “This state of affairs cannot be allowed to persist for one more day,” the DOJ lawyers wrote on Monday, asking the appeals court to issue an administrative stay to stop McConnell’s order. “A stay pending appeal is warranted.”...