A federal judge in Rhode Island has blocked a Trump administration push to attach new culture war-related conditions to grant funding from the Justice Department’s Office on Violence Against Women.

Judge William E. Smith of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island issued a ruling on Friday that temporarily halts the new conditions on fiscal 2025 grants, siding with a group of coalitions who sued over the changes.

“The Court concludes that the challenged conditions run afoul of the prohibition against arbitrary and capricious agency action,” Smith wrote in the ruling.

Earlier this year, the Justice Department updated its grant announcements with an expanded list of “out-of-scope activities,” or activities that could not be funded by grant money, according to the ruling.

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