Chicago, Illinois - A federal judge on Thursday responded to a lawsuit filed by four Democratic-run states by blocking the Trump administration's attempt to cut $600 million in public health funding.

US Judge Manish S. Shah of the District Court of North Illinois on Thursday issued an emergency order protecting Democratic states' public health funding after four states filed a lawsuit on Wednesday.

Shah found that California, Colorado, Illinois, and Minnesota had provided enough evidence that the cuts were "based on arbitrary, capricious, or unconstitutional rationales" to warrant a temporary restraining order.

The block is designed to reduce potential harms while the courts hear legal arguments from both sides and come to a final ruling.

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Only last week, the Trump administration was blocked from withholding $10 billion from child care and social services in the same four states as well as New York.

"Recent statements plausibly suggest that the reason for the [funding cut] is hostility to what the federal government calls 'sanctuary jurisdictions' or 'sanctuary cities,'" Shah wrote in the Thursday decision.

"The harm to plaintiffs from the loss of funding is irreparable and intangible – the loss of capacity to fund and maintain public health infrastructure puts the health of plaintiffs' residents in jeopardy," he continued, before ruling that "the balance of harms favors the plaintiffs."

In a statement after the ruling, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said that "if President Trump and those who work for him want to stop losing in court, they should stop breaking the law."

"My fellow attorneys general and I will continue standing up for public health and the well-being of the people we serve," Bonta added.