Trump has landed his first big win in the Supreme Court. Chief Justice John Roberts has temporarily halted a lower court’s order requiring the White House to unfreeze nearly $2 billion in foreign aid, giving the White House more time to challenge the ruling. This decision delays the enforcement of a judgment by U.S. District Judge Amir Ali, who had determined that the administration failed to comply with his previous directive to restore funding.
Issued late Wednesday, Roberts’ ruling suspends a deadline that would have required the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to release the funds by midnight. The administration argued that the timeline was unrealistic and that the judiciary was overstepping its authority in foreign policy matters, reported The Hill.
“This new order requiring payment of enormous sums of foreign-assistance money in less than 36 hours intrudes on the prerogatives of the Executive Branch. The President’s power is at its apex—and the power of the judiciary is at its nadir—in matters of foreign affairs,” acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris wrote in the emergency motion to the high court.
By default, the request went to Roberts, who handles emergency appeals arising from the nation’s capital. His pause lasts until the court decides whether to wipe Ali’s ruling, which Roberts could decide himself or refer to full court for a vote.
Roberts ordered the plaintiffs to respond in court filings by mid-day Friday.
But for now, Roberts’s decision means the administration does not have to release the funding by midnight, handing Trump a temporary win in his broader effort to dismantle USAID.
For USAID contractors and nonprofit organizations that had sued to restore funding, the delay extends an already uncertain situation. These groups warned in legal filings that without prompt relief, some could be forced to close within days. The ruling by Judge Ali was among a swath of low-level liberal judges who believed they had the power to stop the White House arbitrarily.
Earlier in the month, for example, a liberal-donor-turned-leftwing-district- judge, John McConnell, ordered that the White House had to lift its freeze on some spending simply because he deemed it so.
The administration ignored its order.
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