Legal/Law/Criminal Justice and Reform

Supreme Court Pauses Order That Would Force Trump Admin To Pay Out $2 Billion In Foreign Aid

(Screen Capture/CSPAN)

Chief Justice John Roberts granted the Trump administration’s request Wednesday to pause a lower court order requiring them to pay an estimated $2 billion in foreign aid.

Roberts directed the parties to explain by Friday at noon why the funding should continue. U.S. District Judge Amir Ali, a Biden appointee, temporarily halted on Feb. 13 the administration’s freeze on foreign spending. He directed the Trump administration on Tuesday to resume payments by Wednesday night.

Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris told the Supreme Court that the lower court’s order “appears to contemplate the immediate outlay of nearly $2 billion” and has “thrown what should be an orderly review by the government into chaos.”

“What the government cannot do is pay arbitrarily determined demands on an arbitrary timeline of the district court’s choosing or according to extra-contractual rules that the court has devised,” she wrote. “That mandate creates an untenable payment plan at odds with the President’s obligations under Article II to protect the integrity of the federal fisc and make appropriate judgments about foreign aid—clear forms of irreparable harm.”

The order is the first time the Supreme Court has granted relief to the Trump administration. In a separate case on Friday, the majority did not take action on a request to block an order putting an agency head Trump fired, Hampton Dellinger, back in his position as head of the Office of Special Counsel.