Attorney General Neronha recommits to defending the Constitution following Court decision

Published on Thursday, March 06, 2025

Attorney General Peter F. Neronha today issued the following statement following a preliminary injunction being granted by Chief Justice John J. McConnell, Jr. against President Trump’s unconstitutional executive order freezing congressionally allocated federal funding to states.

“Immediately following President Trump’s Inauguration, he made his feelings about the Constitution known through a barrage of executive orders, many of which attempted to subvert the rule of law in favor of illegal executive power. We don’t have kings in this country, and today’s preliminary injunction reaffirms that.

“Americans pay taxes to the federal government knowing that the Congress will allocate their dollars towards agencies and programs that will support them in their daily lives. The President’s federal funding freeze would be laughable if it wasn’t so utterly destructive. It flies in the face of everything we know to be true about our government, namely our separation of powers, by attempting to render the Congress as irrelevant. And to be clear, this is about far more than payment portals going offline; it is a test case, meticulously crafted by this Administration, to determine what they can get away with. We must not let them.

“There is a silver lining here: right now, the Judicial Branch stands strong. Judge McConnell decided to grant our request for a preliminary injunction, so that this case may be heard on its merits, because frankly, the law is on our side. In doing so, Americans should feel encouraged that the President cannot impose his will where he does not have the constitutional power to do so. And while he may continue to try, we will continue to fight.

“We have a long road ahead of us, to be sure. But today’s decision reminds us that the President cannot amend the Constitution with the stroke of a pen. In fact, our founders designed it to protect against those who may try. We must come together and assert that in America, the power of the people will always trump the power of one man.”

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