A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to release billions of dollars in funds former President Joe Biden approved to build electric vehicle infrastructure in 14 states.
In granting a partial preliminary injunction Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Tana Lin – a Biden nominee – ordered that funding frozen by the Trump administration earlier this year be distributed to the states of Washington, Colorado, California, Arizona, Delaware, Hawai’i, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin.
While the judge ruled that the Trump administration breached its constitutional authority in pulling the funds approved by Congress in 2021 under Biden’s “Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act,” Lin said Minnesota, Vermont and the District of Columbia did not provide enough evidence to prove they would suffer “irreparable harm” if the funding was not immediately released.
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The sixteen states and D.C. sued the Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration in the Western District of Washington at Seattle last month.
“Although range anxiety, EV charging stations, and current DOT leadership’s policy preferences lurk in the background of this case, the bedrock doctrines of separation of powers and agency accountability, as enshrined in Constitution and statute, are indifferent to subject matter and blind to personality,” Lin wrote Tuesday. “When the Executive Branch treads upon the will of the Legislative Branch, and when an administrative agency acts contrary to law, it is the Court’s responsibility to remediate the situation and restore the balance of power.”
Through Biden’s $1 trillion infrastructure deal, Congress established the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (“NEVI”) Formula Program, which appropriated $5 billion to “provide funding to States to strategically deploy electric vehicle charging infrastructure and to establish an interconnected network to facilitate data collection, access, and reliability.”
President Donald Trump directed federal agencies earlier this year to stop releasing certain funds appropriated under the “Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act,” including those for electric vehicle charging stations, as the incoming administration claimed the Biden White House had generally misused resources and eroded public trust.
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On Feb. 6, 2025, the Federal Highway Administration “rescinded its administrative guidance on the program, revoked the state deployment plans for constructing EV infrastructure that had been created, implemented, and previously approved under that guidance, and, effectively, stopped distributing the Congressionally appropriated funds,” Lin’s order says.
The judge said the freezing of congressionally appropriated funds violated the “separation of powers” ensured by the Constitution.
The Trump administration said it intended to review and revise the EV program’s guidance to align with the new president’s policy objectives.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, the state’s Democratic top cop under Gov. Gavin Newsom, celebrated the partial preliminary injunction on Tuesday.
“It is no secret that the Trump Administration is beholden to the fossil fuel agenda. The administration cannot dismiss programs illegally, like the bipartisan Electric Vehicle Infrastructure formula program, just so that the President’s Big Oil friends can continue basking in record-breaking profits,” Bonta said in a statement. “We are pleased with today’s order blocking the Administration’s unconstitutional attempt to do so, and California looks forward to continuing to vigorously defend itself from this executive branch overreach.”
Lin gave the Trump administration seven days to appeal until her order goes into effect on July 2.
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