A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s plan to slash public health grants and other funding to four blue states over concerns about fraud.
U.S. District Judge Manish Shah, an Obama appointee, on Thursday issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting the White House from cutting public health grants that had been awarded to Illinois and the other plaintiffs, which include California, New York, and Colorado.
The primary issue in this case centers on whether federal agencies can suddenly stop public health funding grants that state and local governments rely on for programs like HIV prevention and lead poisoning screening. Judge Shah ruled that “plaintiffs have established a likelihood of success in demonstrating that defendants have taken final agency action amounting to guidance or directives to review grants awarded to plaintiffs for termination based on arbitrary, capricious, or unconstitutional rationales.”
The biggest fraud in Minnesota is actually @Tim_walz The nerve of him to actually say, "Fraud is a long forgotten thing for everybody except me!" reaches new levels of ridiculous. What a jackass. pic.twitter.com/8SzkYnhM3B
— Jon Justice (@JonJustice) February 10, 2026
Shah reasoned that Illinois and the other states would likely win their case and that the federal government was violating federal law by trying to slash this funding without proper justification or following the proper procedures.
The court’s ruling dealt with several important legal questions about whether the federal government is allowed to cancel grants that were already approved and being used for public health programs. The judge insisted that “plaintiffs have shown that they would suffer irreparable harm from the agency action.” This means the damage to public health programs would be severe enough that it couldn’t easily be fixed later.
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Judge Shah concluded that “the balance of equities and public interest favor plaintiffs because the public interest is not harmed by temporarily enjoining arbitrary and capricious and unlawful agency action.”
The temporary restraining order requires federal officials to “immediately treat any actions taken to implement or enforce directive to identify and terminate public-health grants awarded to plaintiffs based on undisclosed agency priorities, as null, void, and rescinded.”
You’d never believe the kinds of fraud schemes happening in Minnesota. @HHS_Jim and I were taken aback to say the least.
— DrOzCMS (@DrOzCMS) January 23, 2026
Here’s just a snippet of what we saw on the ground and are working to stop. pic.twitter.com/UNgpjrMoIk
This legal battle comes as the result of the White House ordering the CDC to claw back hundreds of millions of dollars in grants, claiming they were “inconsistent with agency priorities” and overly focused on health equity initiatives.
The New York Times noted that the grants support a wide range of programs, including HIV and sexually transmitted infection prevention, post‑pandemic workforce recruitment, modernizing data systems, and preparedness for health emergencies in California, Colorado, Illinois, and Minnesota.
The Trump administration has justified the cuts by pointing to evidence of widespread government welfare fraud in these states — especially Minnesota, whose leadership has fallen under scrutiny for allowing fraudsters to steal up to $9 billion in taxpayer funds.
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