A Supreme Court in the United States has rejected President Donald Trump administration request to freeze nearly $2 billion in foreign aid to slash government spending.
The court upheld a lower court ruling, ordering the administration to release the funds to contractors and grant recipients of the US Agency for International Development, and the State Department (USAID).
This comes a month after Judge Amir Ali, of the District lower court, ordered the State Department and USAID to pay the bills to contractors for the work already done by midnight on 26 February.
However, as the deadline approached, the Trump administration sought an emergency relief from the Supreme Court, arguing it was impossible to process claims in an orderly fashion in such a short period of time.
During the Wednesday ruling, the top court in a narrow 5-4 decision declined to halt the lower court order that required the Trump administration to release the payment.
The presiding Judge, Chief Justice John Roberts, said that Ali’s deadline for the immediate payment had now passed, and the district court should “clarify what obligations” the administration must fulfil to comply the order.
While members of the panel accepted the ruling, four conservative justices dissented from the denial of the application, with Justice Samuel Alito writing that Ali did not have “unchecked power to compel the government to pay out 2 billion taxpayer dollars.”
“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?” Justice Alito wrote in a dissent joined by the three other conservative justices.
“The answer to that question should be an emphatic ‘No,’ but a majority of this Court apparently thinks otherwise. I am stunned.”
The case began when two aid groups challenged Trump’s 90-day freeze on foreign assistance.
The groups said the frozen funds have created cascading crises, threatening critical medical care around the world, leaving food rotting in warehouses, ruining businesses and risking the spread of diseases and political instability
