Key Takeaways
US District Judge Theodore Chuang ruled Monday that the Trump administration cannot cancel the FBI's planned Greenbelt, Maryland headquarters or move the bureau to the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington.
The court found the switch and the redirection of funds violate the Administrative Procedure Act and caused Maryland and Prince George's County irreparable injury.
The GSA selected Greenbelt in November 2023 and Congress appropriated $1 billion for the project before the administration announced a different site in July 2025.
A federal judge ruled Monday that the Trump administration cannot scrap plans to build the FBI's new headquarters in Greenbelt, Maryland, and blocked the bureau from relocating to the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington instead.
US District Judge Theodore Chuang found that the decision to switch sites, and the movement of money that came with it, violates the Administrative Procedure Act, and that Maryland and Prince George's County suffered irreparable injury as a result. The order blocks both the relocation and the redirection of any funds toward it.
The sequence is the whole case. The General Services Administration picked Greenbelt over Landover, Maryland and Springfield, Virginia in November 2023, at the end of a site-selection process Congress had set up in legislation passed in 2022 and 2023. Congress then appropriated $1 billion for the build, according to Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown. In July 2025 the administration announced it would keep the FBI in Washington and move it across the street to the Reagan Building. Brown sued in November, arguing the federal government was trying to illegally reprogram money Congress had already committed to a different place.
"This victory is about more than a building," Brown said in a statement reported by WTOP, adding that the ruling is about whether the federal government can simply ignore a decision Congress made because it does not like the outcome. Federal officials are expected to appeal.
The pattern here is hard to ignore. This is the second time this month a court has told the administration it cannot route around what Congress already decided, after a judge blocked the mail-in voting executive order nationwide, and it lands in the same week the Justice Department pressed its own campaign against state law in the Dream Act tuition suits. The money in this one is already appropriated. The building is not built yet.
People Also Ask
Who ruled on the FBI headquarters case?
US District Court Judge Theodore Chuang, sitting in Maryland, issued the order and memorandum opinion on Monday, August 17, 2026, in the case brought by Maryland and Prince George's County.
Why did the judge block the move to the Reagan Building?
The court found the decision violated the Administrative Procedure Act and that redirecting appropriated funds to a site Congress had not selected caused Maryland and Prince George's County irreparable injury.
How much money was appropriated for the Greenbelt site?
Congress appropriated $1 billion for the project after the General Services Administration selected Greenbelt in November 2023, according to Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown.
Is the FBI headquarters decision final?
Not yet. The ruling blocks the relocation and the fund transfer now, and federal officials are expected to appeal, so the site question is likely to move to a higher court.