Judge Grants Temporary Order Halting Cuts to Public Health Grants in Illinois, Other States

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Judge Grants Temporary Order Halting Cuts to Public Health Grants in Illinois, Other States

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul appears on “Chicago Tonight” on Jan. 14, 2026. (WTTW News)

A federal judge in Chicago has granted a temporary restraining order halting the Trump administration’s plans to cut some $600 million in public health grants allocated for Illinois and other Democrat-led states.

U.S. District Judge Manish Shah signed off on the restraining order Thursday in a lawsuit brought by attorneys general from four states including Kwame Raoul that sought to prevent the cuts.

“The harm to plaintiffs from the loss of funding is irreparable and intangible — the loss of capacity to fund and maintain public health infrastructure puts the health of plaintiffs’ residents in jeopardy,” Shah wrote in his order. “The balance of harms favors plaintiffs.”

Shah added that he found the plaintiffs had made a “sufficient showing that defendants issued internal guidance to terminate public-health grants for unlawful reasons.”

The lawsuit was filed this week following the Office of Management and Budget’s directive to cut grants from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Along with Illinois, California, Colorado and Minnesota also jointly filed the lawsuit.

Raoul said the funding covered under those grants allows states to track disease outbreaks, maintain and improve data systems and collect basic public health data that the CDC itself relies on.

He said the cuts — which would lead to a loss of more than $100 million in funding just in Illinois — would violate the Constitution and have a “devastating impact on basic public health infrastructure.”

When the lawsuit was filed, the cuts had only been proposed, but by Thursday, the Trump administration had officially moved forward with the action.

“This TRO means that Illinois will continue to receive CDC grant funding while the order is in place,” Raoul said in a statement Thursday. “We remain unflinching in our commitment to defending against the Trump administration’s continued unlawful directives intended to force us to implement immigration and other unrelated policies.”

The Department of Health and Human Services said the grants are being terminated because they do not reflect CDC priorities, which were revised last year to align with the administration’s shift away from health equity, the idea that certain populations may need additional support to eliminate health disparities.

Much of the money helped cities fight the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, especially among gay and bisexual men, adolescents and ethnic minorities.

According to Raoul, the largest grant targeted is the Public Health Infrastructure Block Grant, which he said funds critical short-term infrastructure, workforce needs and long-lasting strategic investments.

Without that funding, Raoul said Illinois would have to cancel 55 contracts supporting strategic planning, data modernization, emergency preparedness, workforce training and community engagement, and terminate nearly 100 Illinois Department of Public Health employees.

“This unprecedented action is callous, arbitrary and politically based,” Raoul said. “The president may be playing politics with critical public health funding, including more than $100 million to Illinois, but our residents are the ones who pay the price. Illinoisans cannot afford the hundreds of lost jobs, in the form of laid off public health professionals, or the devastation these cuts would cause to our public health infrastructure.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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