A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the Trump administration must temporarily unfreeze nearly $2 billion in federal funding for the Chicago Transit Authority’s Red Line extension project.
Federal Judge Thomas M. Durkin granted the CTA’s request for a temporary restraining order in a case the transit authority filed last week against President Donald Trump’s Department of Transportation and the Federal Transit Administration.
The order will remain in place until Friday, giving the federal government time to appeal if it chooses to do so.
The case involves about $2.1 billion in federal grants, which the CTA says the Trump administration is holding “hostage” in violation of federal law and the U.S. Constitution. Much of that money is supposed to fund the agency’s Red Line Extension, a massive project to extend CTA rail to the city’s Far South Side. The CTA had originally planned to break ground early this year, but site preparation for the project has already begun.
But the federal government froze the funds in October, meaning the CTA was unable to repay costs associated with the massive project. The CTA said in court documents that it has taken “extraordinary measures” over the past few months to continue work on the project, including issuing new bonds and expanding new credit lines.
But the CTA said it had no choice now and warned that without court intervention it would have to start taking steps to end the project as early as Friday.
“The CTA will have to begin demobilization efforts and notify employees and contractors that they will soon be out of a job, causing a series of direct and irreparable harm to the CTA and the public at large,” attorneys for the CTA said in court documents.
On Tuesday, Durkin said he believed the CTA was likely to succeed in its case against the federal government. He said he would issue a written order later in the day.
The CTA secured federal funding for the Red Line extension, which is now expected to cost $5.75 billion in total during the final period of President Joe Biden’s administration. The long-awaited project is expected to extend the CTA’s Red Line from 95th Street to 130th Street, passing through neighborhoods that have long been without CTA rail service. Former CTA President Dorval Carter described the project at the time as one that “will eliminate nearly 60 years of racial inequality.”
But last October, the U.S. Department of Transportation froze those funds, along with a smaller portion of federal funding for the North Side CTA modernization project, amid what the federal government said was an investigation into racial preferences in the contract.
“The American people don’t care about the race or gender of their construction workers, pipefitters or electricians,” the U.S. Department of Transportation said at the time. “They just want these large projects to eventually be built quickly and efficiently.”
The same day, the federal government issued an interim final rule that eliminates consideration of race and gender preferences for businesses seeking “disadvantaged” certification.
The CTA argued that it was an act of “political retaliation” by the U.S. Department of Transportation by singling it out to retroactively apply new contract rules.
“Of the hundreds of grants nationwide affected by the new requirements of the interim final rule,” only four funds have been frozen, the CTA’s lawsuit says [its] authority. The grants include two grants belonging to the CTA and two grants for projects in New York and New Jersey, the CTA said.
“You changed the game,” Durkin told the federal government’s attorneys, who also argued that the investigation into the CTA’s contract preferences was separate from the interim rule change.
Durkin also focused on the argument that the CTA and Chicago are treated differently than the vast majority of other transportation department grant recipients.
Durkin said on the bench that “things would be different” if the rules were applied evenly across the country. “I thought there were still 50 states and the treatment was the same.”
At a City Hall press conference Tuesday morning, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson echoed the “political retaliation” argument the CTA made in its lawsuit last week.
“This is political retribution at its best, and I won’t tolerate it, I won’t tolerate it,” he said. “I will use every tool available to ensure that the people of this city, whether you’re on the North Side of Chicago or the South Side of Chicago, have access to the federal funding our economy needs to continue growing.”
In court filings, federal lawyers argued that the Northern District of Illinois lacked jurisdiction to hear the case because it revolved around a contract dispute.
FTA and the U.S. Department of Transportation did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday.
CTA Acting President Nora Leerhsen called Durkin’s ruling a “major victory” for Far South Side residents in a statement Tuesday. “The CTA made a commitment to the community that it will fight for the RLE, and this ruling is a big step toward restoring funding for this historic project,” she said.
In a court filing last week, lawyers for the CTA wrote, “A city’s infrastructure is its lifeblood; it makes a city a city.”
“Nowhere is this truer than in Chicago, whose iconic elevated and subway network (the “L”) dates back to 1892 and is recognized around the world.”
The Chicago Tribune’s Alice Yin contributed.
