US District Judge W illiam E. Smith of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island ruled Tuesday that the Trump administration violated its previous order requiring the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to remove certain conditions for states to accept Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grants.

Following the court’s September order mandating the removal of these conditions, the Trump administration issued new FEMA award letters to states that were nearly identical to those the court had already deemed unlawful. The only difference was that the new letters specified that the contested conditions would take effect if the administration’s appeal succeeded. This effectively required states to agree in advance to the same disputed terms, despite the court’s prior

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