The Justice Department unconstitutionally retaliated against the American Bar Association by terminating grants for a program aimed at helping victims of domestic violence, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
Five grants from DOJ’s Office on Violence Against Women to the ABA’s Commission on Domestic and Sexual Violence totaling $3.2 million must be reinstated and fully paid out, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled.
Legal Battle Over Grants
“The ABA has made a strong showing that Defendants terminated its grants to retaliate against it for engaging in protected speech,” Cooper wrote.
The grants at issue were terminated on April 10, one day after Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a memo laying out new DOJ policy that severely limits the ability of department employees to attend or participate in ABA events or programs.
The ABA joined an earlier lawsuit challenging a freeze on foreign aid grants via the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development. The ABA then sued the Justice Department over the canceled grants.
Judge’s Ruling
DOJ failed to show a sufficient motivation for terminating the grants other than retaliation, Cooper ruled.
“The government claims that it had a nonretaliatory motive for terminating the grants: They no longer aligned with DOJ’s priorities,” Cooper wrote. “But the government has not identified any nonretaliatory DOJ priorities, much less explained why they were suddenly deemed inconsistent with the goals of the affected grants.”
Other Office on Violence Against Women grant recipients have not had their funding disrupted and continue to conduct similar programs to the ABA’s, Cooper noted.
Future Implications
Wednesday’s order doesn’t prevent DOJ from terminating the grants for “permissible and truly nonretaliatory reasons,” though any further action to cancel the payments would be subject to more legal challenges.
The ABA has joined with other bar associations in recent months to criticize the Trump administration’s efforts to punish lawyers and firms that represent certain clients.
