Supreme Court Forces Trump to Pay Foreign Aid Groups

In a 5-4 decision the United States Supreme Court has blocked President Donald Trump’s effort to cut billions of dollars in funding and aid in foreign countries, which would have caused thousands - perhaps millions of children and adults - to lose food, medicine and critical resources.

The Trump administration attempted to eliminate more than 90 percent of the funds distributed by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) that would have gutted programs and $60 billion in U.S. humanitarian assistance around the world.

The court decision was handed down Wednesday, March 5, the day after Trump’s State of the Union address. The decision was made with agreement from Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Katanji Brown Jackson also voting to stop Trump.

Conservative Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh dissented from the decision. The offices of the US AID have been the epicenter of a verbal fight between federal workers, Democratic lawmakers and Trump appointees who have locked the building in Southwest, Washington DC.

On Tuesday the House floor became another venue for protest as Republicans applauded Trump’s speech to Congress while the Democrats sat glum and held up signs. Handing a setback to Trump, the high court in the 5-4 decision upheld U.S. District Judge Amir Ali's order that called on the administration to promptly release about $2 billion to contractors and recipients of grants from USAID and the State Department for their past work.

The AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition and the Global Health Council had gone to court to challenge the Trump administration's cutoff of the funds at USAID and the State Department. 

Federal Judge Amir Ali, nominated by President Biden and confirmed to the bench in 2024, had issued a temporary restraining order to allow the continuation of foreign aid funding while he examined the issues in the case.

Had Trump not been stopped, millions that go to food and medical supplies around the world, including African nations, would have been blocked.

Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, applauded the high court decision. “That money had already been appropriated, things were already in action, and so I think the Supreme Court ruled the right way,” Meeks told the New York Times. “And now the administration needs to unfreeze them and allow those contractors to be paid and the work to continue.

Writing for the dissenting voices on the court, Judge Alito challenged Judge Ali and said he was out of bounds.  "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? The answer to that question should be an emphatic ‘No,’ but a majority of this Court apparently thinks otherwise. I am stunned."