A divided Supreme Court ruled that President Donald Trump can not freeze $2 billion in foreign aid payments, urging the administration to comply with orders to release the funds.
In a brief 5-4 decision shared on Wednesday, the high court backed US District Judge Amir Ali, who had ordered the Trump administration to release billions in foreign aid frozen by a Trump executive order on the president's first day in office.
Ali issued a temporary restraining order on Feb. 13 that barred the administration from pausing appropriated aid payments. When the Trump administration appeared to flout that order, Ali issued another order on Feb. 25 demanding that the admin release the funds. The administration's attorneys filed an emergency request with the Supreme Court and were granted a temporary reprieve. Plaintiffs in cases opposing Trump's freeze filed a brief late last week that called the crisis an "emergency of [the government's] own making."
“By forcing thousands of American businesses and nonprofits to suspend their work, and by halting disbursements for work that they had already performed, even work that already had been reviewed by the government and cleared for payment, the government plunged respondents into financial turmoil,” they wrote.
The Supreme Court appeared to agree, ultimately deciding that Trump officials are beholden to Ali's orders. Justice Amy Coney Barrett broke ranks with her conservative counterparts to join the majority made up of Chief Justice John Roberts, Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson. The ruling was short and unsigned, laying out the precedent before requesting clarification from Ali on the administration's "obligations."
Justice Samuel Alito wrote the dissent, joined by Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, claiming that Ali was abusing the power of the judiciary and using "unchecked power to compel the government" to pay.
"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."
The ruling was celebrated by Democratic legislators, who saw in the ruling an early indicator of how the court might handle Trump's attempts to snatch the pursestrings from Congress.
“I think it reinforces … that Congress has authorization to appropriate money, and that people rely on that authorization for those programs, and that when you do the work, you should get paid when it’s been authorized,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., told CNN.
