WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked the Donald Trump administration’s wholesale dismantling of AmeriCorps, an independent federal agency that facilitates public community service opportunities, reversing the termination of its grants and volunteer network across 24 Democratic-led states.

In an opinion explaining the ruling, Judge Deborah L. Boardman of the U.S. District Court in Maryland wrote that the various programs funded through AmeriCorps — which include public health, veteran transition services, conservation and environmental protection, and education support — have come to fill a void in government services in many parts of the country.

The sudden suspension of those programs, which she emphasized was done at the behest of the Department of Government Efficiency, left states marooned and struggling to provide for their residents, she concluded.

The government had argued that if it were ordered to restore the grant programs, but eventually prevailed in the case, it could stand to lose millions.

— The New York Times