The Supreme Court rejected a Trump administration effort to block a lower court’s ruling that ordered it to pay nearly $2 billion in foreign aid.
In a 5-4 decision, the Court wrote, “Given that the deadline in the challenged order has now passed, and in light of the ongoing preliminary injunction proceedings, the District Court should clarify what obligations the Government must fulfill to ensure compliance with the temporary restraining order, with due regard for the feasibility of any compliance timelines.”
Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh joined Justice Samuel Alito in a dissenting opinion.
“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.”
Last month, Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily blocked a federal judge’s order requiring the Trump administration to immediately release $2 billion in foreign aid payments.
The Trump administration wrote in a filing the Supreme Court that “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.”
“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 filing said. “The order appears to contemplate the immediate outlay of nearly $2 billion. And the government has no sure mechanism to recover wrongfully disbursed funds delivered to entities that claim to be near insolvency.”
