A divided U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday denied former President Donald Trump’s request to halt the disbursement of approximately $2 billion in foreign aid.
In a 5-4 decision, the justices upheld a lower court’s ruling that mandated the administration to fulfill payments for completed contracts.
This marks the court’s first major ruling on a legal challenge involving Trump since his return to office.
The justices stated that the federal judge who ordered the continuation of payments for contracts with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the State Department “should clarify what obligations the Government must fulfill.”
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a Trump appointee, sided with the court’s three liberal justices, forming the majority opinion.
Justice Samuel Alito, in a dissent joined by three other conservative justices, strongly opposed the ruling.
“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 wrote.
“The answer to that question should be an emphatic ‘No,’ but a majority of this Court apparently thinks otherwise. I am stunned,” he added.
According to AFP, the dispute originated from a ruling by District Judge Amir Ali, a Biden appointee, who issued a temporary restraining order last month preventing the Trump administration from “suspending, pausing, or otherwise preventing” the release of foreign aid funds.
Trump has been spearheading a movement, backed by his top donor, billionaire Elon Musk, to scale down or eliminate various sectors of the U.S. government.
One of the primary targets of this effort has been USAID, the agency responsible for distributing U.S. humanitarian assistance across approximately 120 countries through health and emergency relief programs.
Trump has previously referred to USAID as being “run by radical lunatics,” while Musk has described the agency as a “criminal organization” that should be put “through the woodchipper.”
