SUMMARY: Happy Saturday morning! Meteorologist Drake Foley reports cooler temperatures with some refreezing on roads this morning, but conditions are improving as temperatures rise into the 40s and melting occurs. Northwest Arkansas still has some snow, but it will dissipate with the sunny weather over the next few days. Sunday will see temperatures drop into the 20s overnight, but warm to the high 50s and low 60s. The coming days promise more sunshine and temperatures could reach the 70s by Tuesday, with minimal chance of refreezing. A weak cold front may bring isolated showers midweek. Enjoy the beautiful forecast!

40/29 Meteorologist Drake Foley says this weekend will be wonderful and the start of a warming pattern that continues into the end of the month.

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Temporary restraining order blocking freeze remains in place awaiting federal judge’s ruling

by Nancy Lavin, Arkansas Advocate
February 21, 2025

A crowd of Democratic state attorneys general packed the left side of a third-floor federal courtroom in Providence Friday afternoon, prepared to make their case for a longer and more sweeping ban against a federal funding freeze.

Opposite them sat U.S. Department of Justice attorney Daniel Schwei, the lone representative for President Donald Trump and the dozens of federal cabinet agencies named in the AGs lawsuit.

“It kind of reminds me of a wedding where everyone sits on the bride’s side,” Chief Judge John McConnell Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, joked.

But there was little love as arguments played out during the two-hour hearing. The AGs decried the immediate and irreparable harm already playing out nationwide for state agencies and government contractors unable to make payroll or provide services to residents in the wake of an attempted federal funding freeze.

Schwei acknowledged the infamous White House budget memo that set off the cascade of chaos and litigation was too broadly interpreted at first. But he insisted the AGs’ request seeking to stop the administration and federal agencies from blocking access to any federal grants and aid was too broad.

As expected, McConnell did not immediately issue a ruling of the request for a preliminary injunction, though he promised to do so “quickly” — likely within a week. Until then, his existing, short-term ban preventing the federal administration from freezing funds stands.

Speaking to reporters outside the courtroom Friday afternoon, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha, one of six co-leads in the lawsuit, said he felt confident in the AGs’ arguments.

“You can’t really read from the questioning which way a judge is leaning, but I am confident we’re right on the law here,” Neronha said. “The question will be how do you write the remedy? But I have no doubt we’re going to get a preliminary injunction.”

If granted, the requested injunction would prevent the federal government from freezing any already-obligated grants and aid not expressly under the executive branch’s purview as the case proceeds. While McConnell granted a short-term ban three weeks ago, the longer and more permanent block is necessary, Neronha said.

“The reason we want an order is because, frankly, we don’t trust them,” Neronha said. “In the long run we need this order to ensure that the president won’t go back to doing what is patently unconstitutional and that is to reverse the spending decisions of the Congress.”

Even though the White House budget memo was rescinded two days after its Jan. 27  issuance, the objective of freezing federal funds remains, as stated on X by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. Even now, trillions of dollars in funding for educational and scientific research, energy efficiency programs and foreign aid remains inaccessible, including in Rhode Island, according to court documents filed by the AGs.

They argue the abrupt halt of money necessary to pay employees to provide services risks severe consequences to the people who benefit from those programs, as well as state governments themselves.

In Rhode Island, for example, the unexpected halt of $125 million in federal funding to the Office of Energy Resources, including rebates for electric vehicles, could jeopardize expected state revenue, forcing state officials to overhaul their entire budget, Sarah Rice, Rhode Island assistant attorney general, said during the hearing Friday.

Elsewhere across the country, inability by state governments to pay contractors hired for infrastructure work or to run Head Start programs for young children has created a “chilling effect” where vendors no longer want to work with state governments, Rice said.

“This is a threat to all components of service infrastructure in each of our states,” Rabia Muqaddam, special counsel for federal initiatives for the New York Attorney General’s office, said during the hearing Friday. “It is really impossible to hold, in my eyes, how vast the impact would have been if not for the court’s orders.”

Muqaddam also highlighted the unprecedented nature of Trump’s executive orders in the breadth and speed with which he attempted to halt trillions of dollars in funding already authorized by Congress. The AGs lawsuit contends, among other arguments, that the funding freeze violates the separation of powers and spending clauses of the U.S. Constitution.

Schwei, however, pointed to budget and spending freezes enacted under presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, including Biden’s decision to halt the $1.4 billion allocated for a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. Much like Biden wanted to pause cash flow to study whether it was the best use of money, so does Trump look to review how federal money is spent, Schwei said.

“The rationale is for agencies to pause funding to review it,” Schwei said, “and decide, is this the best use of taxpayer dollars?”

He openly admitted that the initial White House budget memo had a broader impact than was intended, but pointed to subsequent guidance issued as soon as the day after clarifying and narrowing the scope of the funding freeze to specific sources.

“When properly understood, the OMB memo is directing a pause to a handful of discrete topics,” Schwei said.

McConnell pushed back, noting it wasn’t until he issued his temporary restraining order that suddenly, funds were again accessible to state agencies, nonprofits and contractors.

If, as Schwei suggested, only federal agencies with the independent power to review their funding had paused grants and aid, the court order would not have led to a gush of previously backstopped funding, McConnell said.

McConnell also offered counterpoints and questions to the AGs, including over the scope of a proposed court order and the overlap with a slew of other federal lawsuits challenging executive orders on funding, including in D.C. and Massachusetts.

McConnell, a Biden-era appointee and prolific donor to Democratic candidates prior to his appointment to the bench, has come under fire by Vice President J.D. Vance and later, Elon Musk, who called for impeaching McConnell in a post on X.

Members of Rhode Island’s congressional delegation and the Rhode Island Bar Association quickly came to McConnell’s defense.

Neronha on Friday called the Republican-led criticism of McConnell “ridiculous.”

“What the vice president, Mr. Musk and others do when they challenge Judge McConnell’s integrity, when they talk about impeaching him, is again, trying to undermine the judicial branch of government,” Neronha said. “When the president sidelines both the Congress and the judiciary, what we have is an authoritarian system of government.”

McConnell appeared unfazed by the sudden national spotlight and criticism.

“I try not to read the papers anymore, thankfully, except when The New York Times called my order ‘slightly testy,’” he said during the hearing, referring to an article published on Wednesday. 

Earlier Friday, a federal judge in Massachusetts extended a temporary ban preventing the National Institutes of Health from capping funding for research institutes and universities.

On Thursday, a federal judge in D.C. heard arguments, but did not issue an order, in a separate case by nonprofit and business groups challenging the federal funding freeze.

Rhode Island Current is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Rhode Island Current maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janine L. Weisman for questions: info@rhodeislandcurrent.com.

Arkansas Advocate is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arkansas Advocate maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sonny Albarado for questions: info@arkansasadvocate.com.

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Republican state AGs seek to clarify stance on disability law

by Anna Claire Vollers, Stateline, Arkansas Advocate
February 21, 2025

Amid a public backlash over the potential loss of disability protections, 17 Republican state attorneys general submitted a new court filing Thursday to clarify their position in a lawsuit that seeks to strike down part of a federal law that safeguards disabled people from discrimination.

The lawsuit, filed in September, targets the Biden administration’s addition of a gender identity-related disorder to the disabilities protected under a portion of federal law known as Section 504.

The AGs, in a joint status report filed with a U.S. District Court in Texas, clarified that they don’t want the lawsuit to take away Section 504 accommodations for people with disabilities.

“We’ve been saying all along that there was never any intention to take away 504 accommodations, and this court filing confirms that,” South Carolina Republican Attorney General Alan Wilson said in a statement Thursday.

In recent weeks, the AGs have faced a growing public outcry stemming from conflicting messages about what the lawsuit would do.

National disability rights groups, advocates and experts have pointed to parts of the lawsuit in which the AGs ask the court to find the entirety of Section 504 unconstitutional. They fear that if the court agrees, the law’s discrimination protections for all people with disabilities could vanish.

Arkansas Republican Attorney General Tim Griffin, Georgia Republican Attorney General Chris Carr and others issued public statements in recent weeks adamantly denying that interpretation. Griffin has said that if the states win the lawsuit, “regulations would go back to what they were” before the gender identity-related disorder was added.

“Plaintiffs clarify that they have never moved — and do not plan to move — to declare or enjoin Section 504 … as unconstitutional on its face,” the new joint status report reads.

The lawsuit is currently on hold. The parties in the case agreed to pause litigation shortly after President Donald Trump took office, while his administration reevaluates the federal government’s position. A spokesperson for Carr told Stateline in an email that they expect the Trump administration to reverse the Biden rule, which could cause the lawsuit to be dropped.

Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org.

Arkansas Advocate is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arkansas Advocate maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sonny Albarado for questions: info@arkansasadvocate.com.

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