Trump crackdown hits legal wall with new ruling

In the latest legal blow to the Trump administration, a federal judge in Rhode Island has prohibited officials from setting new restrictions on grants issued by the Violence Against Women Act based on Trump's executive order purging the federal government of "gender ideology."

VAWA distributes federal funding to communities to prevent domestic violence. Trump began moving to scale back some of these funds, which in 2022 were passed to support shelters that serve some particularly high-risk groups of women. Under Trump's policy, any jurisdiction that seeks VAWA grants would have to commit against supporting transgender rights and diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, programs.

U.S. Senior District Judge William E. Smith's order blocked this policy while litigation proceeds, finding that the Trump administration is likely to be in violation of federal law — and went into detail about how Trump's policies risk a chilling effect on victims of domestic and sexual violence from receiving support.

"Many of the Coalitions that provide services to eligible victims who are transgender question whether they will now be permitted to provide the same quality of services, including acts such as: (1) providing trainings on servicing transgender and nonbinary crime victims, and (2) using those victims’ preferred pronouns, in basic recognition of those victims’ gender identity, because doing so would run afoul of the so-called 'gender ideology' Executive Order," wrote Smith.

Furthermore, he wrote, they fear "they will no longer be permitted to discuss with victims options for responding to incidents of domestic or sexual violence other than reaching out to law enforcement, which in some jurisdictions can involve collateral consequences that might not be the preferred course for particular victims, because doing so would arguably violate the challenged condition regarding collaboration with law enforcement."

This verdict comes just days before the Aug. 12 deadline for communities to file VAWA grants for the year.