A US federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from conditioning counterterrorism grants for state and local governments on changes to election administration.

US District Judge Amir Ali issued the ruling on Monday in Washington, DC, in a case brought by local governments in Tennessee, Texas and Ohio challenging election-related conditions attached to federal security funding.

The dispute arose after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) attached five election-related requirements to 2026 funding under the Homeland Security Grant Programme.

The programme provides federal funding to state and local governments to prevent, protect against and respond to terrorism and other security threats.

Under the funding conditions, authorities faced the withholding of 20 per cent of their grants unless they complied with requirements relating to voting equipment, post-election audits, ballot reconciliation, voter citizenship checks and election-worker citizenship checks.

The local governments argued that Congress had not authorised FEMA to make counterterrorism funding dependent on how states and localities administer elections.

They maintained that the conditions exceeded the agency’s authority and improperly sought to influence election procedures through federal spending.

Judge Ali sided with the local governments, preventing the administration from conditioning the counterterrorism funding on the disputed election-administration changes while the legal case continues.

The ruling is part of a series of legal disputes over the Trump administration’s efforts to increase federal involvement in election administration ahead of the November 3 midterm elections.

The US Constitution gives states primary responsibility for administering elections, while Congress has authority over federal election rules.

The legal challenge was filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia under the case Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee, et al. v. US Department of Homeland Security, et al.

The administration’s disputed conditions had been attached to more than $1 billion available through the Homeland Security Grant Programme, which supports state and local efforts against terrorism and other security threats.