A federal judge on Tuesday upbraided the Trump administration for violating a court order by trying to illegally coerce states into enforcing federal immigration priorities in exchange for disaster aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

In the underlying litigation , the plaintiffs, led by Illinois, allege the "grant funding hostage scheme" violates the U.S. Constitution's spending clause as well as numerous aspects of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), the federal statute governing agency behavior.

On Sept. 24, U.S. District Judge William E. Smith, a George W. Bush appointee, agreed with the plaintiffs . The court bemoaned the state of affairs as "unduly coercive and invalid" and unconstitutional, as well as "arbitrary and capricious" under the APA.

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