The Supreme Court has upheld a lower court’s order requiring the United States Agency for International Development and the State Department to immediately pay approximately $2 billion owed to contractors for work already completed.
In a 5-4 decision Wednesday, the justices denied the Trump administration’s request to vacate the lower court’s order, allowing the payments to proceed, though Republican-appointed Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh dissented.
The decision marks a legal defeat for the Trump administration’s efforts to freeze the funds as part of its broader attempt to curtail foreign aid spending, one that some sympathetic justices described as shocking.
In his dissent, Alito condemned the majority’s decision, arguing that a single district judge should not have the unchecked power to compel the federal government to disburse such a large sum of money. He chided the majority for a “most unfortunate misstep that rewards an act of judicial hubris” by U.S. District Judge Amir Ali, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, who last week gave the Trump administration just under two days to unfreeze $2 billion in payments for work already conducted by USAID contractors.
Alito also emphasized concerns over sovereign immunity and the loss of taxpayer funds, writing, “The answer to that question should be an emphatic ‘No,’ but a majority of this Court apparently thinks otherwise. I am stunned.” His argument, joined by Thomas, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh, appeared to support the notion that the government would never be able to retrieve the $2 billion in allocated funds if they were later found to be unjustified or fraudulent in nature.
Two of the court’s Republican appointees, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, sided with the Democratic appointees in declining to undo a lower court’s order.
The ruling comes after a temporary stay issued by Roberts on Feb. 26, which paused a lower court’s mandate that compelled the government to disburse the funds by midnight that day.
The legal dispute began when the administration moved to halt USAID foreign aid payments, prompting a lawsuit from contractors and nonprofit groups that had already completed projects and were awaiting compensation. On Feb. 13, Ali issued a temporary restraining order barring the administration from freezing the funds. The court followed up with a Feb. 25 order requiring immediate payment for work performed before the restraining order was put in place.
The ruling underscores broader tension between the administration’s aggressive executive actions and the judiciary’s role in checking presidential authority.
SUPREME COURT SIDES WITH TRUMP IN USAID FUNDING DISPUTE FOR NOW
Ali is expected to hold a hearing on Thursday over the aid groups’ motion for a preliminary injunction. If it is granted, it would suspend the freeze on foreign-assistance funding going forward.
This means that the dispute could return to the Supreme Court as an emergency appeal in the near future.
