U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday lost the latest round in a court battle over his administration's bid to freeze federal spending after an appeals court declined to pause a court order requiring the government to continue delivering funds.
The U.S. Department of Justice had asked the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals late on Monday to put on hold an order that a Rhode Island federal judge issued earlier that day, after finding the administration had defied his January 31 ruling by continuing to withhold billions of dollars in federal funding.
The 1st Circuit said in a two-page opinion that it was confident the lower court would quickly clarify the concerns the government cited in its filing, including that the order bars the president from exercising his lawful authority.