"Coercive": Court slams Trump bid to tie funds to ICE cooperation

• Homeland Security operates the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which coordinates and assists states with disaster preparedness and response.

What they're saying: "The Court declares that the contested conditions are both arbitrary and capricious ... as such, the contested conditions are vacated," Judge William Smith wrote in the 45-page court filing.

• Smith wrote that the conditions DHS set were not "reasonably related to the purposes" of the grants they were attached to.
• "The coercion is even more pronounced because the threatened funds involve essential public safety responsibilities rather than optional or peripheral programs," he wrote.
• DHS did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment.

Catch up quick: Led by Illinois, 20 states and Washington, D.C. filed a lawsuit against DHS and FEMA for revising the terms of their funding in April.

• The revised terms required states to share immigration status data with ICE and allow DHS access to detainees, among other things, according to the suit.

The intrigue: Smith's ruling extends to all states, not just the plaintiffs, even though the Supreme Court curbed judges' power to issue nationwide injunctions earlier this year.

• Smith noted that the SCOTUS ruling doesn't affect the Administrative Procedure Act, which requires judges to "set aside" illegal agency actions.

Zoom in: DHS argued that the funding conditions were necessary to meet its broader mission of securing the U.S. homeland, but Smith disagreed.

• "The grants at issue fund programs such as disaster relief, fire safety, dam safety, and emergency preparedness."
• "Sweeping immigration-related conditions imposed on every DHS-administered grant, regardless of statutory purpose, lack the necessary tailoring," he added.

Go deeper: Trump administration sued by 20 states over FEMA disaster program cuts