The Supreme Court sided with the administration of President Donald Trump on Tuesday, overturning a lower court’s stay on the administration’s freeze on billions in foreign aid.
Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office that paused the distribution of foreign aid money appropriated by Congress. As part of his wider plan to slash federal spending, Trump deemed the foreign aid payouts on global health programs and HIV/AIDS prevention wasteful and ordered his administration to halt the payouts via the State Department and USAID.
US District Court Judge Amir Ali found that the order “usurp[ed] Congress’s exclusive authority” over the country’s budget. The D.C. Court of Appeals failed to overturn the stay, leaving the Trump admin responsible for $4 billion in unspent aid appropriations. That funding needed to be distributed before the current federal budget comes to an end on September 30.
The Trump administration appealed to the Supreme Court for an emergency intervention, and the Supreme Court granted it. Chief Justice John Roberts issued an administrative stay, which paused the lower court’s orders to give his own court time to consider the case.
Democrats in Congress alleged earlier this year that Trump’s foreign aid freeze has withheld over $400 billion in funding approved by the legislature. In March, the Supreme Court ruled that Trump must distribute another $2 billion in foreign aid funding he had attempted to freeze.
Conservative Justices Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas dissented on that ruling, with Alito writing for the minority.
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“The government must apparently pay the $2 billion posthaste — not because the law requires it, but simply because a district judge so ordered,” Alito wrote. “As the nation’s highest court, we have a duty to ensure that the power entrusted to federal judges by the Constitution is not abused. Today, the court fails to carry out that responsibility.”
