The ruling was the latest challenge to sweeping White House plans to cut costs and remake the US government.

US District Judge John McConnell Jr previously ruled that the government should continue to fund programmes authorised by Congress.

On Monday, he said the White House had defied a preliminary injunction that the judge issued after 23 Democratic state attorneys general filed a lawsuit to stop the funding freeze. The Trump administration said it would appeal the ruling.

ADVERTISEMENT

On 28 January, President Trump signed an order that initially froze hundreds of billions of federal funds, a move that the president said was a short-term measure to hunt for waste and fraud.

It was unclear which government programmes were affected and the move caused widespread panic among millions of people who rely on government funds for health care, pension and veterans’ benefits, and food aid.

The White House rescinded a memo that outlined more detail on what would be frozen but said it was still planning to halt funding.

Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said the executive order remained in effect and the White House would continue to pursue a broad funding freeze and cut funds for gender issues and diversity programmes.

The group of attorneys general from Democratic-run states filed a lawsuit and Judge McConnell issued a temporary injunction to halt the plans just days later.

On Monday, the judge said the White House had not complied with his order, although he did not announce a penalty or find administration officials in contempt of court.

McConnell wrote that administration officials argue “that they are just trying to root out fraud. But the freezes in effect now were a result of the broad categorical order, not a specific finding of possible fraud.”

The broad freeze, the judge said, was “likely unconstitutional and has caused and continues to cause irreparable harm to a vast portion of this country.”

The Trump administration made a court filing later on Monday, saying it intended to appeal the decision and asked for the court’s orders to be paused.

The ruling is the first to find that the second Trump administration violated a court order. Democrats and their allies have lodged dozens of lawsuits in an attempt to slow or halt Trump’s policies, which he’s enacted with sweeping executive orders at a rapid pace since taking office about three weeks ago.

The Trump administration has taken action to expand the power of the president to control US government funds, and his administration is undertaking a broad set of unilateral cuts through Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (Doge).

The lawsuits could result in one or more Supreme Court rulings on the scope of presidential power.