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Attorney General William Tong this week won a court order stopping the Trump administration from reducing unnecessary federal bureaucracy.
The Executive Order aimed to dramatically reduce the size of the Federal Government, while increasing its accountability to the American people.
The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA), and the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) would have been impacted by Trump's Executive Order.
Tong sued on April 4, 2025, weeks after the Executive Order was initiated on March 14th.
Chief Judge John J. McConnell of the U.S. District Court in Rhode Island granted Tong's motion, agreeing with the plaintiffs that Trumps Executive Order violates the Administrative Procedures Act, separation of powers principle, and the Take Care clause of the U.S. Constitution.
That news shouldn't be a surprise to anyone considering McConnell is an activist judge.
How much of an activist judge you might wonder?
So much that a resolution was proposed in Congress to impeach McConnell for "high crimes and misdemeanors" on March 24, 2025.
The resolution accuses McConnell of wide-ranging abuses of power and argues he has allowed his own personal, political opinions to influence his decisions and rulings.
It further details a host of conflicts of interest, such as the time he presided over and made a decision regarding a case which significantly impacted the funding of an organization in which he personally served as a director of and as a fiduciary, when he should have actually recused himself.
The resolution concludes by saying, "Wherefore, Chief Judge John James McConnell Jr. is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors and should be removed from office."
Nonetheless, the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island on May 6th issued an order granting the states’ request for a preliminary injunction to stop the Trump administration from implementing the Executive Order.
“We sued to stop Trump from defunding our schools and cancer cures, our disaster relief, and our police. We sued and now have yet another court order stopping him from defunding summer reading programs and audiobooks for disabled veterans. To those who say we’re overreacting because we’ve yet to see widespread destruction of Connecticut programs and jobs—this is the firewall. There is one reason that Trump has yet to completely dismantle our state, and that is because we are suing, we are succeeding, and we’re not going to stop,” said Attorney General Tong.
The preliminary injunction granted halts cuts at three agencies listed in the administration’s Executive Order: MBDA, FMCS and the equity-focused IMLS.
Attorney General Tong and the coalition asserted in the lawsuit, "dismantling these agencies will have devastating effects on communities throughout Connecticut and the nation that rely on them to provide important services to the public, including funding their libraries, promoting minority-owned businesses, and protecting workers’ rights."
The preliminary injunction granted Tuesday halts the Trump administration’s Executive Order as it applies to IMLS, MBDA, and FMCS. The court found that the states had "established a strong likelihood of success on their claims that the Executive Order violates the Administrative Procedure Act and disregards the Constitution by attempting to dismantle agencies that Congress established and funded by law."
Joining the lawsuit are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.
