Judge Orders FEMA to Release Funds to Blue States

A federal judge on Friday ruled that the Federal Emergency Management Agency violated a previous ruling and must distribute millions in grants to nongovernment organizations in Democrat-controlled states.

U.S. District Judge John McConnell wrote that “FEMA’s manual review process violates the court’s preliminary injunction order” imposed in response to a lawsuit by several states over the Trump administration’s blanket freeze on federal grants and loans.

He added that the agency “must immediately comply with the plain text” of the preliminary injunction order “not to pause or otherwise impede the disbursement of appropriated federal funds to the States.”