WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Rhode Island ruled Tuesday that the Trump administration had unlawfully sought to withhold funding from more than two dozen domestic violence and sexual assault prevention groups, while using the grants to try to extract political concessions.

In a 10-page ruling, Judge Melissa R. DuBose said she had no reason to revisit her initial reaction in April that the Justice Department had improperly tried to coerce grantees into accepting a number of arbitrary conditions. She wrote that the “chaotic overhaul” of the grant programs — which Congress appropriated funds for under the Violence Against Women Act — left organizations hesitant to accept support on such vague terms.

For example, the Trump administration had specified that grantees could neither serve people who were in the United States illegally nor promote “ideas on gender ideology.”

Other conditions were even more expansive, such as one prohibiting grantees from “advancing activities or programs in contravention of executive orders.”

DuBose wrote that the directives left out any forethought about how accepting the conditions or giving up funding would affect the groups suing. The groups had argued that if they were found to have violated any of the conditions, they could face severe penalties for fraud under the False Claims Act.

“The court determines that defendants failed to substantively engage with the ways in which a whole host of externalities could arise in the context of complying with these conditions,” she wrote.

Signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1994, the Violence Against Women Act has provided more than $10 billion for programs aimed at preventing domestic violence and supporting victims. Congress has reauthorized the act four times, most recently in 2022.

The Trump administration has attached similar conditions to a wide variety of federal funds, including law enforcement and homelessness funding, and disaster relief and counterterrorism support. Besides conditions focused on eliminating workplace diversity goals, the administration has proposed others that would require cities and states to conform to its policies on immigration and election administration.

The grants at issue were predominantly managed by the Office on Violence Against Women and the Office of Justice Programs. Before the case was transferred to DuBose, an appointee of President Joe Biden, Judge William E. Smith, an appointee of President George W. Bush, had also temporarily blocked the conditions last year. He retired this year.

“These grants help sustain shelters, crisis response services, legal assistance and coordinated community efforts that survivors rely on in moments of profound danger,” the coalition of organizations suing said in a statement. “We are grateful that this ruling means that this critical funding will have lasting, permanent protection.”

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Zach Montague/Demetrius Freeman
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