Roberts blocks Trump’s foreign aid payment deadline


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Chief Justice John Roberts has temporarily halted a lower court’s directive that would have required the Trump administration to distribute $2 billion in suspended foreign aid by midnight.

The Supreme Court received an emergency request from the Trump administration seeking to block the release of USAID funding, which had been mandated by a federal judge’s midnight deadline. Administration officials had expressed their inability to meet the judge’s requirements.

The administration argued that U.S. District Judge Amir H. Ali’s directive had established “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.”

Organizations pursuing legal action against the Trump administration must submit their response by noon on Friday. As CNN reported, “Roberts’ order does not resolve the underlying questions raised by the case. Rather, it imposed what’s known as an ‘administrative stay’ to give the court a few days to review written arguments in the case.” The Chief Justice holds responsibility for managing emergency cases from Washington, DC’s federal appeals court.

The dispute centers around State Department and USAID foreign aid funding, which CNN noted was frozen by Trump in January as part of his efforts to restrict federal spending and align it more closely with his policy objectives.

 

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