A federal judge just hit Donald Trump with a blunt message: “Stop violating the law!”
In a searing ruling on Monday, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan found that Trump’s White House illegally shut down a public website meant to show how federal agencies are spending taxpayer money.
“There is nothing unconstitutional about Congress requiring the Executive Branch to inform the public of how it is apportioning the public’s money,” Sullivan wrote in his 60-page decision. Then, in bold and unmistakable language, he added: “Defendants are therefore required to stop violating the law!”
The site was taken down back in March by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Its director, Russell Vought, admitted to Congress that the data was intentionally removed. He claimed it was due to the “sensitive” and “deliberative” nature of the information — a move watchdogs say was illegal.
Two government accountability groups — Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and Protect Democracy — sued. They accused the administration of hiding critical information the public is legally entitled to, especially information about how Congress-approved funds are actually being spent.
Judge Sullivan didn’t buy the excuses.
He said Trump and Vought leaned on “an extravagant and unsupported theory of presidential power” to argue they didn’t have to tell the public how they use taxpayer money. Instead, the administration whined about the “extra work” required under new laws passed in 2022 and 2023.
“This is a management issue; not a constitutional one,” Sullivan shot back.
The judge ordered the OMB to put the website back up and include all the information removed — even going back to when it was first taken offline.
Adina Rosenbaum, an attorney with Public Citizen Litigation Group, called the ruling a clear win for transparency: “The law is clear that the federal government must make its appropriations decisions public… The administration must follow the law.”
Nikhel Sus, deputy chief counsel at CREW, said the ruling sends a strong message: “Americans have a right to know how taxpayer money is being spent.” He added, “Ensuring public access to this information serves as a critical check on the executive branch’s abuse and misuse of federal funds.”
This isn’t the first time a court has smacked down Trump’s agenda. His administration has lost dozens of major legal battles, with judges striking down executive orders as unconstitutional. In one case, a judge mocked Trump’s sweeping policies as a legal “gumbo” that gave him “heartburn.”
The Washington Post previously reported that Trump’s team defied nearly one-third of the 165 court orders filed against them — a staggering record of resistance.
Meanwhile, Vought is still doubling down. Speaking at a Christian Science Monitor event last week, he dismissed bipartisan budgeting as unnecessary:
“There is no voter in the country that went to the polls and said, ‘I’m voting for a bipartisan appropriations process.’”
Vought, a former Heritage Foundation official and co-author of the controversial Project 2025, recently helped push through cuts that stripped $9 billion in federal funding from global aid efforts and public broadcasters like NPR and PBS. He told reporters more cuts are on the way.
But Judge Sullivan made one thing clear in his ruling: When it comes to following the law, this administration doesn’t get to pick and choose.
