Judge Mary S. McElroy, who has twice blocked President Donald Trump’s efforts to freeze EPA, Energy Department, and other grants, has a history of Democrat activism.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy issued an injunction against the Trump administration, ruling in favor of environmental groups who claim the president unlawfully froze grants for projects that combat alleged “climate change, reduce pollution, and modernize American infrastructure.”
“Agencies do not have unlimited authority to further a President’s agenda, nor do they have unfettered power to hamstring in perpetuity two statutes passed by Congress during the previous administration,” McElroy ruled.
The Trump administration has said that the administration has the right to pause funding for awarded grants to redirect the funds to more suitable projects, and that the Rhode Island judge lacked jurisdiction to hear the case.
The Justice Department had also claimed that it has a stronger position after the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration could cancel millions of dollars in teacher training grants as part of its crackdown on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
However, this is not the first time that Judge McElroy had frustrated the Trump administration’s efforts to freeze grants government-wide.
In early April McElroy approved a request from Democrat state officials in Rhode Island to “temporarily prevent President Donald Trump’s administration from cutting state health grants.”
“The harm to the plaintiff states and the plaintiff agencies if we cease that … is clearly irreparable,” McElroy said after arguments from attorneys representing state governments and the Trump Health and Human Services (HHS) Department. The HHS had revoked over $11 billion in grants to states.
McElroy has had an extensive history of Democrat activism, which includes:
- As a high school student, she handed out flyers for Julius V. Michaelson’s Senate campaign in 1982
- In 1984, in college, she acted as a page for the Rhode Island delegation to the Democrat National Convention
- She served as a volunteer for James E. O’Neil’s campaign for Rhode Island Attorney General
- She was a member of the Rhode Island Democrats from 1984 to 1986
“I participated in efforts to encourage young people to register to vote and to become involved in the political process and support the electoral efforts of Democrat candidates,” she wrote in her Senate questionnaire.
President Barack Obama first nominated McElroy to fill a seat on the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island in 2015. Her nomination expired in 2017 and President Trump nominated her to the post in April 2018.
Lawmakers have moved to curb the influence of and rein in “judicial insurrectionists,” or district court judges who usurp the role of the executive branch and “thwart the will of the American people who elected him [President Trump].”
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), who voted against McElroy’s confirmation in the Judiciary Committee in 2019, introduced the Judicial Insurrectionists Act of 2025 in March to establish “a three-judge panel to swiftly review injunctions or declaratory relief” against the president and the executive branch.
Lee said in a statement at the time:
America’s government cannot function if the legitimate orders of our Commander in Chief can be overridden at the whim of a single district court judge. They have presumed to run the military, the civil service, foreign aid, and HR departments across the Executive Branch—blatantly unconstitutional overreach.
He explained, “This legislation will create a judicial panel to expedite Supreme Court review of these blanket injunctions, preventing unelected radicals in robes from sabotaging the separation of powers.”
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on X @SeanMoran3.
