Politics
Federal judge bars Trump administration from using obscure clause to make huge funding cuts
By
MICHAEL CASEY / Updated 6:05 PM GMT-5, July 17, 2026
BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge in Boston on Friday ruled the Trump administration can’t use an obscure clause relating to agency priorities to make billions of dollars in funding cuts.
Twenty-three states had a filed a lawsuit last year accusing the administration of using the clause to make cuts to everything from crime prevention to food security to
scientific research. They were concerned that it would be used to cancel current and future grants.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani granted a summary judgment preventing the administration from relying on the clause to make cuts and denied a motion by the government to dismiss the case.
“Defendants’ interpretation of the Termination Clause is not clearly supported by the text of the provision, runs counter to the regulatory scheme, receives no support in the rulemaking history, and would violate the Spending Clause’s requirement that conditions be imposed unambiguously,” Talwani, who was nominated by Democratic President Barack Obama, wrote.
The lawsuit argued that the Office of Management and Budget promulgated the use of the clause in question to justify what it described as a “nationwide slash-and-burn campaign.”
A federal judge in Boston has ruled the Trump administration can’t use an obscure clause relating to agency priorities to make funding cuts.
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