President Donald Trump lost a case on Wednesday when the US Supreme Court, which is divided, denied his request to block about $2 billion in foreign aid payments. The court decided 5-4 to uphold a lower court order mandating payments on aid contracts that have already been fulfilled, marking its first major decision in a legal challenge to the Trump administration. According to the justices, the federal judge who ruled to resume payments for contracts with the State Department and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) “should clarify what obligations the Government must fulfill.” The three liberal justices on the nine-member Supreme Court voted with conservatives Amy Coney Barrett, a Trump appointment, and Chief Justice John Roberts.
The three other conservative justices concurred with the dissent written by Judge Samuel Alito. “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?” Alito wrote. “A resounding ‘No,’ should be the answer to that inquiry, but it appears that most of this Court disagrees. “I’m in shock,” he murmured. Last month, the Trump administration was barred from “suspending, pausing, or otherwise preventing” foreign assistance money by a temporary restraining order issued by District Judge Amir Ali, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden.
Elon Musk, the richest person in the world and Trump’s top donor, is spearheading a movement to reduce or destroy large swaths of the US government. The most concentrated fire has been on USAID, the primary organization for distributing US humanitarian aid around the world with health and emergency programs in around 120 countries. Trump has said USAID was “run by radical lunatics” and Musk has described it as a “criminal organization” needing to be put “through the woodchipper.”