It came as a major setback for the Donald Trump administration after a divided Supreme Court rejected the request to keep billions of dollars in foreign aid approved by Congress frozen, news agency CNN reported.
The top court did not immediately say when the funds must be released, allowing the administration to continue to dispute the issue by approaching lower courts. The ruling was 5-4, as per the news agency.
The majority noted that given a court-ordered deadline to spend the money last week had already passed, the lower courts should “clarify what obligations the government must fulfil to ensure compliance with the temporary restraining order.”
In a strongly worded dissent, a conservative judge wrote that he was “stunned” by the court’s decision to permit the lower-court judge to order the administration to unfreeze the foreign aid at issue in the case.
She added: “A federal court has many tools to address a party’s supposed nonfeasance. Self-aggrandizement of its jurisdiction is not one of them.”
The appeal raced to the high court within days – exceedingly fast by the federal judiciary’s standards. It is the second case to reach the justices dealing with Trump’s moves to consolidate power within the executive branch and dramatically reshape the government after taking power in January, as per CNN.
At the center of the case is billions in foreign aid from the State Department and the US Agency for International Development that Trump froze in January as he sought to clamp down spending and bring those agencies in line with his agenda. Several non-profit groups that rely on the funding for global health and other programs sued, asserting that the administration’s moves usurped the power of Congress to control government spending and violated a federal law that dictates how agencies make decisions, CNN reported.
In a brief on Friday, the groups described the administration’s actions as having a “devastating” impact.
They told the court that the funding “advances US interests abroad and improves – and, in many cases, literally saves – the lives of millions of people across the globe.”
“In doing so, it helps stop problems like disease and instability overseas before they reach our shores,” the groups said, as per CNN.
