Federal Judge Lauren King has granted a temporary injunction against a provision in Donald Trump’s executive order banning gender-affirming care that would deny federal funds to medical institutions that provide such care. King’s injunction — the second against Trump’s ban — will remain in place while legal challenges against the ban proceed in court.

On Friday, King, appointed by former President Joe Biden, agreed with a lawsuit filed by three Democratic attorneys general from Washington, Minnesota, and Oregon. The attorneys argued that Trump’s order overstepped his authority as president, incorrectly tried to regulate a medical matter decided by states, and violated the constitutionally protected equal rights of transgender people and medical professionals.

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Trump’s order seeks to cut off federal funds to hospitals and universities that offer or teach about gender-affirming care. But King said Trump cannot independently decide how to spend federal funds that Congress has already appropriated.

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“The United States Constitution exclusively grants the power of the purse to Congress, not the President, and the ‘President does not have unilateral authority to refuse to spend the funds’ Congress appropriates,” King wrote, according to Advocate.

The attorneys general called Trump’s order a “cruel and baseless broadside against transgender youth, their families, and the doctors and medical institutions that provide them this critical care,” their lawsuit stated.

“It is an official statement of bigotry from the president that directs agencies to openly discriminate against vulnerable youth on the basis of their transgender status and sex,” they wrote. “It is also a blatant abuse of power. The order usurps spending and legislative powers belonging exclusively to Congress and seizes the States’ historic police powers to regulate the practice of medicine in violation of the Tenth Amendment.”

Trump’s lawyers from the Department of Justice (DOJ) argued that the lawsuit shouldn’t be allowed to proceed because federal agencies have not yet threatened to revoke any particular grants related to Trump’s order, CBS News reported. Nonetheless, some hospitals have begun denying gender-affirming care in anticipation of federal consequences.

The DOJ lawyers also argued that Trump’s order fell within his authority to direct federal agencies to follow his administration’s policies.

Last Thursday, another federal judge blocked Trump’s order nationwide and prohibited federal agencies from withholding or conditioning funding to these hospitals and universities that promote gender-affirming care.

The injunction, issued by U.S. District Judge Brendan Hurson — another Biden appointee — declared that Trump issued his ban without legal authority, making his orders an illegal and unconstitutional form of discrimination.

Responding to the ruling, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) attorney Joshua Block said, “Today’s decision should restore both their access to healthcare and protections under the Constitution. Providers who’ve suspended healthcare for their transgender patients should be left with no doubt that they can lift those suspensions and continue to provide healthcare and act in their best medical judgment without risking their funding or worse.”

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