US Supreme Court Won't Let Trump Withhold Payment to Foreign Aid Groups

  • A divided U.S. Supreme Court declined on Wednesday, March 5, to let President Donald Trump's administration withhold payment to foreign aid organisations for work they already performed for the government as the Republican president moves to pull the plug on American humanitarian projects worldwide.
  • Handing a setback to Trump, the court, in a 5-4 decision, upheld Washington-based U.S. District Judge Amir Ali's order that had called on the administration to promptly release funding to contractors and recipients of grants from the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department for their past work.
  • Chief Justice John Roberts and fellow conservative Amy Coney Barrett joined the court's three liberal members to form a majority in rejecting the Trump administration's request. Conservative Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh dissented from the decision.
  • The order by Ali, who is presiding over an ongoing legal challenge to Trump's policy, had originally given the administration until February 26 to disburse the funding, which it has said totalled nearly US$2Bn that could take weeks to pay in full.
  • Roberts paused that order hours before the midnight deadline to give the Supreme Court additional time to consider the administration's more formal request to block Ali's ruling. The Supreme Court's 6-3 conservative majority includes three justices Trump appointed during his first presidential term.
  • The court did not provide a rationale for its unsigned order on Wednesday. With the original deadline now lapsed, the court instructed Ali to "clarify what obligations the government must fulfil to ensure compliance with the temporary restraining order, with due regard for the feasibility of any compliance timelines."
  • Ali has a hearing scheduled for Thursday at the request of the plaintiffs for a preliminary injunction. The judge has a temporary restraining order currently in place that lasts until March 10.

(Source: Reuters)