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www.newsindiatimes.com – that’s all you need to know US Affairs News India Times (March 8, 2025 - March 14, 2025) March 14, 2025 5 Divided Supreme Court Says Judge Can Force Trump Administration To Pay Foreign Aid A sharply divided Supreme Court onWednesday denied the Trump administration’s request to block a lower court order on foreign aid funding, clearing the way for the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development to restart nearly $2 billion in payments for work already done. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the court’s three liberal justices in the 5-4 order, which was the high court’s first significant move on lawsuits related to President Donald Trump’s initiatives in his second term. The majority did not explain the reasoning for its decision but directed the lower court to clarify what obligations the government must fulfill to global health groups for work already completed, with consideration of the “feasibility of any compliance timelines.” Soon after, the lower court ordered the government to develop a timeline to restart the payments. Aid groups had argued that the Trump administration was flouting the federal judge’s order to pay its bills and hailed the high court’s decision as a sign that the presi- dent cannot ignore the law. The majority’s decision drew a vigorous dissent from four conservative justices who said a U.S. district court judge in D.C. probably lacks the power to compel the federal government to make such payments. “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 proba- bly lose forever) 2 billion taxpayer dollars? The answer to that question should be an emphatic ‘No,’ but a majority of this Court apparently thinks otherwise. I am stunned,” wrote Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., joined by Justices Clar- ence Thomas, Neil M. Gorsuch and Brett M. Kavanaugh. Alito said the majority should have put the enforce- ment order on hold until the government could peti- tion the Supreme Court to consider the case more fully, signaling what could be the opening chapter in a longer fight over whether the administration can freeze such payments. The high court’s conservative majority, including Ali- to, has taken steps in recent years to expand presidential power, most notably in its ruling in the summer to shield Trump from criminal prosecution for his official actions. Last month, when the court refused to immediately allow Trump to fire the head of an independent govern- ment watchdog agency, Alito and Gorsuch dissented, saying the court should have intervened to consider the issue. The administration is facing more than 100 lawsuits challenging its other actions in lower courts, and a number of those are also expected to eventually reach the high court. In the USAID case, U.S. District Judge Amir H. Ali had ordered the money to begin flowing last week, after the Trump administration appeared to defy an earlier ruling that said a 90-day freeze on all foreign aid was imposed too hastily and should be lifted for now. But the government appealed the Feb. 26 deadline, saying it would take weeks longer for USAID and the State Department to resume payments for work com- pleted before Feb. 13. The Supreme Court turned aside arguments by act- ing solicitor general Sarah M. Harris, who called Ali’s deadline an “impossible order” because it gave officials only about 36 hours to comply. Harris also said the judge exceeded his authority, an argument the Trump admin- istration has made repeatedly as the president seeks to significantly expand executive power. “Ordering the United States to pay all pending re- quests under foreign-aid instruments on a timeline of the district court’s choosing – without regard to whether the requests are legitimate, or even due yet – intrudes on the President’s broad foreign-affairs powers and upends the systems the Executive Branch has established to disburse aid,” Harris wrote in a filing Monday. That position drew sympathy from the dissenters. In a blistering assessment, Alito said Ali had issued an overly broad ruling, “brushed aside” the government’s position that the judge had issued a “lawless order,” and ham- strung officials by giving them so little time to object to his decision. The government “must apparently pay the $2 billion posthaste – not because the law requires it, but simply because a District Judge so ordered,” Alito wrote. “As the Nation’s highest court, we have a duty to ensure that the power entrusted to federal judges by the Constitution is not abused. Today, the Court fails to carry out that responsibility.” The lawsuit seeking to restart the funding was brought by the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition and the Global Health Council. They said the Trump administration had defied a temporary restraining order by Ali that initially required payments to begin again in mid-February. The organizations said the freeze had pushed aid groups to the brink of insolvency, forced layoffs, and delayed lifesaving HIV drugs and food assistance to unstable regions worldwide. They said in court filings that the government created an “emergency of its own making” by falling to comply with the restraining order. “Today’s ruling by the Supreme Court confirms that the Administration cannot ignore the law. To stop need- less suffering and death, the government must now comply with the order issued three weeks ago to lift its unlawful termination of federal assistance,” the groups said in a statement after the ruling. The International Rescue Committee, a global relief agency, said in a statement that “access to this funding is critical to enable organizations like the IRC to continue crucial lifesaving work.” The abrupt halting of aid touched off turmoil within USAID as well. A senior official with the agency was placed on leave Sunday after circulating memos saying the spending freeze will result in “preventable death, destabilization, and threats to national security on a massive scale.” In a filing Monday, the global health groups wrote that his memos “further confirm that Defendants have taken no steps toward compliance with this Court’s February 13 [temporary restraining order] and, to the contrary, have actively taken steps to prevent compliance.” The memos estimate that the pause in foreign aid could cause as many as 166,000 more malaria deaths annually, 200,000 more cases of polio and 2 million to 3 million more deaths a year from shuttering immuniza- tion programs, the filing said. The Feb. 26 deadline Ali imposed required the govern- ment to begin paying for all humanitarian relief work completed before Feb. 13. The Supreme Court was only considering whether to delay the Feb. 26 deadline, not the merits of Ali’s broader temporary restraining order, which remains in effect until March 10. That order bars the government from freezing a wider range of payments and taking other steps to dismantle USAID. But the global health groups are arguing that the gov- ernment is ignoring the broader order. They sued after Trump, on his first day in office, paused foreign aid for 90 days. He said he wanted his administration to reevaluate the assistance to determine whether it was in line with his foreign policy agenda. The Trump administration told Ali that it could con- tinue to put a hold on the funds and trim USAID in spite of his temporary restraining order, based on statutes and regulations that exist separately fromTrump’s first-day directive on foreign aid. An administration spokesman has said a review of foreign aid had identified 5,800 USAID awards worth about $54 billion and 4,100 State Department grants that will be cut. After a tense hearing on the matter on Feb. 25, Ali told officials to restart funding one day later. The legal battle over the foreign aid freeze will now continue in the lower courts, where the global health groups have asked for a preliminary injunction – a more permanent stop than a temporary restraining order – against the pause. Ali will hold a hearing on the issue Thursday. -TheWashington Post By Justin Jouvenal, Annie Gowen, Ann E. Marimow PHOTO: Demetrius Freeman/TheWashington Post People protest the Trump administration’s decision to shut down USAID on Capitol Hill last month.