A federal judge in New York issued a preliminary order Tuesday blocking the Trump administration from cutting off states’ access to hundreds of millions of dollars in pandemic relief funds for public schools, including more than $77 million for Illinois.

The Trump Administration has launched another investigation into Chicago Public Schools, this time targeting its newly-created Black Students Success Plan, claiming it discriminates against students based on their race.

The ruling came in a lawsuit brought by the National Education Association and the American Civil Liberties Union, which accused the Republican administration of giving “unconstitutionally vague” guidance and violating teachers’ First Amendment rights.

Harvard University rejected the Trump administration’s demands for policy changes at the school on Monday, putting nearly $9 billion in federal funding at risk.

More than 1,000 faculty members, alumni, students, attorneys and local community members have signed letters calling for “solidarity and resistance” from Northwestern’s leaders as it faces accusations of civil rights violations from Washington.

The coalition of Democratic attorneys general is seeking a preliminary injunction to block the mass firing of half the agency’s employees, as well as the transfer of student loan management and special education services to other federal agencies.

The department has been largely responsible for oversight, enforcing discrimination laws and distributing aid money for schools with low-income students and students with disabilities. Federal funding makes up a relatively small portion of public school budgets, roughly 14%.

The U.S. Department of Education has launched investigations into Chicago Public Schools, the Illinois State Board of Education and Deerfield Public Schools alleging violations of sex discrimination.

The U.S. Education Department last week said it was investigating dozens of universities for alleged racial discrimination, citing ties to the nonprofit organization.

President Donald Trump has derided the Education Department as wasteful and polluted by liberal ideology. However, completing its dismantling is most likely impossible without an act of Congress, which created the department in 1979.

The department’s Office for Civil Rights on Friday announced it has begun investigating 45 universities for failing to follow their “civil rights obligations to end the use of racial preferences and stereotypes in education programs and activities.”

His remarks came just two days after the agency abruptly laid off 1,300 employees, or about half its workforce, including an estimated 50 workers in its Chicago regional office.

In February, the Trump administration announced deep cuts to National Institutes of Health grants for research institutions, a shift that could reduce the money going to some universities by over $100 million.

Officials from Chicago and Illinois are sounding the alarm as the U.S. Department of Education plans to lay off about half of its workforce, putting its future in peril while causing “chaos” for students and schools throughout the country.

Seven of the civil rights agency’s 12 regional offices were entirely laid off, including busy hubs in New York, Chicago and Dallas. Despite assurances that the department’s work will continue unaffected, huge numbers of cases appear to be in limbo.

The Trump administration had already been whittling the agency’s staff, though buyout offers and the termination of probationary employees. After Tuesday’s layoffs, the Education Department’s staff will sit at roughly half of its previous 4,100, the agency said.