A federal judge said that President Trump has violated his order to lift a blanket freeze on federal spending and again directed the administration to release the funds. That comes as top prosecutors in nearly half the country sued the administration for withholding medical research funding.

The states told U.S. District Court Chief Judge John McConnell Jr., that the Trump Administration’s threat to freeze trillions of dollars of grants and loans budgeted to fund everything from homelessness to health care. In some cases, even a delay of hours or days, the lawyers said, would cause “irreparable harm” to communities.