Judge Temporarily Halts $20 Million DHS Ad Campaign Featuring Trump, Finding DNC Likely to Succeed

Status: Temporary restraining order; not a final ruling. The judge found the DNC "likely" to succeed. The case has not been decided on the merits.

What happened

On Oct. 28, U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan of the District of Columbia granted the Democratic National Committee a temporary restraining order. The order freezes a $20 million allocation that the White House Office of Management and Budget moved into a Department of Homeland Security ad campaign featuring President Trump (TRO opinion).

The order stays the ad purchase order and bars OMB and DHS from developing, airing or distributing five challenged ads, including through third parties. The money came from Customs and Border Protection funds meant for "commemorative efforts and events related to border security," according to the opinion.

The two sides

• The DNC: it sued in early October (Law & Crime). It argues the spending broke the appropriations ban on "publicity or propaganda," the Purpose Statute and the Antideficiency Act.
• The government: its main defense was that it had stopped the conduct, according to the opinion. It "raise[d] no arguments on the substantive merits" defending the ads, the judge wrote.

The court's reasoning

In a 35-page order, AliKhan found the DNC likely to succeed on its Administrative Procedure Act claim. She treated the government's defense as a mootness argument that the government had to prove, and said "voluntary cessation" does not end a case on its own. The opinion says the ads kept airing on Oct. 6, 7, 11 and 12, after the President's Oct. 5 statement that taxpayer money would no longer be used. They also kept running after a separate Oct. 12 TRO in a Common Cause case in New York (The Independent).

What's next

A compliance report is due Oct. 30, and a hearing is set for Nov. 2. The TRO lasts 14 days unless the court extends it.