America First Legal, a conservative legal group, filed a brief Tuesday backing the Department of Justice‘s decision to cut nearly $1 billion in grants to left-wing groups as it faces a lawsuit over the cancellations.
In May, a coalition of left-leaning groups filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department, which had canceled $820 million in grants in April. Judge Amit Mehta of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia granted the DOJ’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit last week despite the coalition of groups having asked for an injunction pending appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals.
AFL filed an amicus brief to the federal district court calling on the judge to reject the motion for an injunction pending appeal. The brief argued that since the judge ruled the groups had no standing in the case, he could not issue such an injunction. The amicus brief also disputed the irreparable harm suffered if an injunction is not granted, but said that if one were granted, the groups should be made to pay a bond.
“This Court recently held that the Plaintiffs failed to state any claim or even establish this Court’s jurisdiction over their primary claims. Having failed to clear the low hurdle of a motion to dismiss, the Plaintiffs necessarily cannot clear the much higher hurdle to show that they are entitled to extraordinary injunctive relief pending appeal,” the amicus brief said.
Andrew Block, America First Legal senior counsel, said left-leaning groups can’t accept legal reality.
“In typical swamp fashion, entrenched left-wing interests, long enriched by public funds, are resisting change. However, the Trump administration has halted funding for organizations that fail to serve the public good, and the court has upheld their lack of standing to challenge this,” Block said.
“The American people have spoken, these groups have had their day in court, and they must accept that the era of unchecked public funding is over,” he added.
The DOJ grants cut at the center of the lawsuit against the agency were some of the various discretionary spending cuts made by the Trump administration upon the president’s return to the White House in January.
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