Gettyimages.com/ J. David Ake / Contributor
Supreme Court rejects Trump’s bid to freeze USAID payments
In a 5-4 ruling, the justices require the administration to honor existing aid and contracts obligations while the legal battle continues.
Proponents for the U.S. Agency for International Development won a victory Wednesday when the U.S. Supreme Court denied the Trump administration’s petition to freeze funding for the agency.
The ruling applies to obligations the agency has already made for foreign aid and payments to contractors managing that aid.
President Trump froze the payments on Jan. 20, his first day in office.
The legal question revolves around whether the president has the constitutional power to not spend money appropriated by Congress and obligated by agencies.
With the 5-4 decision, the case goes back to Judge Amir Ali in the Federal District Court in Washington, D.C., who is expected to issue a temporary injunction to push the Trump administration to restart the payments.
Ali issued a temporary restraining order in early February ordering the Trump administration to make payments under contracts that were in place before he took office.
When the administration continued with the freeze, the plaintiffs -- AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, Journalism Development Network and the Global Health Council – went back to Ali, who issued an order that payments resume by midnight Feb. 28.
That triggered the Trump administration to turn to the Supreme Court for an emergency ruling.
The Supreme Court decision was unsigned but supported by the three liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, who were joined by the more conservative Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
While a victory for supporters of USAID, the decision will not open the funding tap overnight.
Ali has a hearing scheduled for Thursday and if he issues a temporary injunction as expected, the Trump administration will likely appeal, which means the Supreme Court will weigh in again.