A very divided Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that the Trump administration must comply with an order of the District Court and pay almost $ 2 billion in foreign assistance funds to non -profit help groups already completed in the name of the Government.
The Court ruled 5-4 with the president of Justice John Roberts and Judge Amy Coney Barrett on the side of the liberal judges.
The Court did not explain the decision, but said that the Judge of the District Court must “clarify what obligations the Government must comply with to guarantee compliance with the temporary restriction order, with due consideration for the viability of the compliance timelines.”
The Supreme Court in Washington, June 30, 2024.
Susan Walsh/AP, file
Currently, a lower court judge is weighing whether or not to impose a long -term preliminary judicial order against freezing foreign aid.
Judge Samuel Alito said in his dissent that he was “stunned” by the decision of the majority.
“A judge of the District court that probably lacks jurisdiction does not have the power without control to force the United States government to pay (and probably lose forever) Taxpayers’ dollars?
The Trump administration did not comment on the ruling immediately.
The majority of the court did not specify a deadline for which the administration needed to comply with.
Initially, the Administration tried to freeze the payments through an executive order before the judge of the United States District Court, Amir Ali, ordered that the payments resume in a temporary restriction order issued three weeks ago.
Last week, ALI, designated by Biden, ruled that the Administration violated the terms of a temporary restriction order and ordered the Trump administration to distribute delayed payments before 11:59 PM February 26.
President Donald Trump listens while Elon Musk speaks at the Oval Office of the White House, on February 11, 2025, in Washington.
Alex Brandon/AP
The lawyers of the Department of Justice recognized that the Trump administration ignored the temporary restriction order, which forbade them to freeze foreign aid funds since the order was issued. Instead, they argued that they should not have to pay the money due to the “sovereign immunity.”
During an extended exchange with ALI, a lawyer from the Department of Justice fought to answer basic questions about compliance with the Trump administration with the temporary restriction order.
The president of the Roberts court ordered a suspension before the deadline when the court heard the case.
Foreign aid groups have been staggering in bankruptcy after Trump’s decision to put an end to help and have been looking for answers.
USAID employees are seen in the Care International warehouse in the city of Ramallah, in the western cessa, on May 10, 2006, since they are ready to load two trucks with donated medical supplies to be sent to the Gaza Strip.
Jamal Auri/AFP through Getty Images
During a February 13 meeting with representatives of these organizations, Pete Marocco, the Trump administration official, commissioned the dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) defended what he called a “total revision based on zero”, and argued that some areas of foreign aid required “radical change”, according to the audio of that meeting that was obtained by ABC News.
“As for payment, one of the reasons why there have been problems with some of the payments is because, despite the president’s executive order, despite the secretary’s guide, we still had disastrous actors in the agencies that tried to take hundreds of illegal payments,” Marocco said. “And so we could take control of that, stop them, take control of some of those people and make sure that money did not go around the door.”
Marocco suggested that payments for organizations with existing contracts would resume the following week, but remained frozen.
ABC News’ Will Steakin, Lucien Bruggeman and Shannon K. Kingston contributed to this report.
