OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
11:52 AM – Thursday, March 6, 2025
On Wednesday, a slim majority of the Supreme Court overturned an injunction that had been preventing the Trump administration from paying nearly $2 billion in “past-due foreign aid funds.”
The case was sent back to U.S. District Judge Amir Ali, who last week allowed the government 36 hours to reimburse foreign aid contractors and grant recipients for work already completed, after Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the court’s liberal side in a 5-4 vote.
The Justice Department (DOJ) quickly filed an appeal with the Supreme Court after the D.C. Circuit refused to stay Ali’s ruling. Roberts granted a temporary stay hours before Ali’s deadline.
Nevertheless, the stay has now been lifted, and Ali has been instructed to “clarify” the duties the government must now fulfill in order to continue complying with his order.
Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the four conservative justices who dissented, charged Ali with “judicial hubris” for taking on the authority to direct the U.S. government to settle unpaid invoices.
“The District Court has made plain its frustration with the Government, and respondents raise serious concerns about nonpayment for completed work,” Alito wrote. “But the relief ordered is, quite simply, too extreme a response.”
“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?” Alito continued. “The answer to that question should be an emphatic ‘No,’ but a majority of this Court apparently thinks otherwise. I am stunned.”
“As a result, the Government must apparently pay the $2 billion posthaste — not because the law requires it, but simply because a District Judge so ordered,” he added. “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 Supreme Court’s ruling would temporarily reopen funding sources that a group of companies and charitable organizations claimed were essential for paying their own contractors and workers worldwide.
However, it makes no difference in the Trump administration’s continued dismantling of USAID and foreign aid funding — in general.
Under the direction of Secretary of State and Acting USAID Administrator Marco Rubio, the administration’s lawyers informed the court last week that USAID and the State Department had completed their individual reviews of foreign assistance awards and they had decided to terminate over 90% of them.
The awards, which totaled about $54 billion, were targeted for deletion “as part of the America First agenda,” a State Department spokesperson told WUSA9 – a CBS affiliate outlet in Washington, D.C.
Among his first actions as president, President Donald Trump ordered a 90-day halt in funding for international aid.
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