Judge Temporarily Blocks Trump Cuts to $600M CDC Health Grants

U.S. District Judge Manish Shah in Illinois issued a 14‑day temporary restraining order barring the Trump administration from rescinding about $600 million in CDC public‑health grants already awarded to California, Colorado, Illinois and Minnesota. The four Democratic‑led states sued on Wednesday, arguing HHS and CDC cannot retroactively yank money Congress has appropriated or impose new conditions tied to the administration’s immigration fight, and warned the cuts would force layoffs of hundreds of public‑health workers and gut disease‑surveillance and HIV/STD prevention programs focused on LGBTQ+ people and communities of color. HHS claims it is terminating the grants because they no longer match revised CDC 'priorities' after the agency abandoned 'health equity' as a guiding principle, a shift public‑health groups have been blasting for weeks as politicized. Officials in the targeted states, which have also seen federal threats to food aid, child‑care subsidies and EV infrastructure, openly describe the move as retaliation for resisting Trump’s immigration crackdown and say they will seek to extend the court’s pause for the duration of the case. The ruling keeps money flowing, for now, to state and city health departments and their partners, and adds to a growing list of Trump‑era attempts to weaponize federal funding that have been at least temporarily blocked in court.