- The Supreme Court is requiring the Trump administration to pay out $2 billion in foreign aid it had frozen. The emergency ruling upholds a lower court order that required the funds be dispersed on a hasty timeline.
- A group of American businesses and nonprofits sued after Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign assistance.
- The dissenting justices expressed frustration that the funds will be unrecoverable once paid out, so if the Trump administration wins the larger case, it will be too late.
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The Supreme Court is requiring the Trump administration to pay out nearly $2 billion in foreign assistance that it had frozen. The 5-4 emergency ruling on Wednesday, March 5, declined to overturn a lower court’s order that required the administration to disperse the funds on a hasty timeline.
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the court’s liberals, Justices Sotomayor, Kagan and Jackson, to form the majority.
Why was the aid frozen in the first place?
On his first day in office, President Trump signed an executive order freezing foreign aid for 90 days. Trump said that his administration would review the aid for “programmatic efficiencies and consistency with United States foreign policy.”
A group of American businesses and nonprofits that receive foreign assistance from the State Department and USAID sued. They claim the Trump administration’s freeze is unlawful. A district court issued a temporary restraining order, requiring the government to end the funding pause. It said the plaintiffs were likely to succeed in showing that the government violated the Administrative Procedure Act.
12 days later, the judge who issued the order felt the Trump administration was moving too slowly. The judge ordered it to pay approximately $2 billion in funds within 36 hours.
The Supreme Court’s ruling requires the district court to clarify exactly which funds the Trump administration must pay out and ensure its timelines are feasible.
What was said about the ruling by the justices?
While the majority did not explain their decision, the conservatives in the minority did.
“Does a single district-court judge who likely lacks jurisdiction have the unchecked power to compel the Government of the United States to pay out (and probably lose forever) 2 billion taxpayer dollars? The answer to that question should be an emphatic ‘No,’ but a majority of this Court apparently thinks otherwise. I am stunned,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote.
Justices Thomas, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh joined Alito.
Alito expressed frustration that once the funds are paid out, they are unrecoverable. So, if the Trump administration succeeded on full appeal later, it would be too late for money already dispersed.
“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,” Alito wrote. “Today, the Court fails to carry out that responsibility.
“Today, the Court makes a most unfortunate misstep that rewards an act of judicial hubris and imposes a $2 billion penalty on American taxpayers,” the dissent continued.
What’s next for the overall freeze on aid?
This decision strictly pertains to the district court’s temporary restraining order. The larger case on whether a freeze on aid is constitutional can still proceed.
