A federal judge in Washington has extended an order blocking the Trump administration from tying up federal loans and grants.

Judge Loren AliKhan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday issued a preliminary injunction — the first order of its kind against the funding freeze and a signal that nonprofit groups challenging the pause are likely to prevail in court.

“In the simplest terms, the freeze was ill-conceived from the beginning. Defendants either wanted to pause up to $3 trillion in federal spending practically overnight, or they expected each federal agency to review every single one of its grants, loans, and funds for compliance in less than twenty-four hours,” AliKhan, a Biden appointee, wrote in her order. “The breadth of that command is almost unfathomable.”

The judge previously issued a temporary restraining order, a more immediate action than a preliminary injunction, against the administration’s widespread pause on federal aid, which was announced in a memorandum from the Office of Management and Budget.

OMB withdrew the memo after AliKhan’s first order, but White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote on the social media network X that the pause was still in effect.

AliKhan included a screenshot of the post in her Tuesday order and cited the administration’s argument that the litigation should be moot because the memo is withdrawn and federal agencies that oversee the funds are now acting of their own accord.

The judge called the government’s claim “a remarkable — and unfathomable — coincidence.”

She also cited a separate order from a federal court in Rhode Island that warned the Trump administration that it risked being held in contempt for continuing with the freeze, even in the absence of the OMB memo.

“Defendants cannot convincingly tell this court that there is no longer a need for injunctive relief after they were found to be in violation of another court’s order,” AliKhan wrote.

Diane Yentel — president and CEO of the National Council of Nonprofits, the lead challenger in the litigation — said the order is a “tremendous relief” for organizations that are struggling amid confusion over the status of their funding.

“These organizations have been left to wonder whether they’ll be reimbursed for their vital work, or if they’ll need to shut down essential programs,” Yentel said in a statement. “OMB’s reckless federal funding freeze would cause catastrophic and irreversible harm to nonprofits and the communities and people they serve.”