In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court has ruled that USAID and the State Department must pay roughly $2 billion in foreign aid.
In a surprising turn, the U.S. Supreme Court handed the Trump administration a setback by upholding a lower court order, requiring it to pay roughly $2 billion to contractors for completed foreign aid work authorized by Congress. This decision puts a dent in the administration’s efforts to cut off that funding.
The case started when the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition and Global Health Council challenged the administration’s move to halt funds at USAID and the State Department. Federal Judge Amir Ali, (Amir Hatem Mahdy Ali is a leftist Canadian-American lawyer serving as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, a famously left-wing position)appointed by Biden and confirmed in 2024, issued a temporary restraining order to keep the aid flowing while he reviewed the matter. When the administration allegedly didn’t follow through, Ali ordered immediate payment for past services.
BREAKING: The Supreme Court has ruled that President Trump must unfreeze $1.9 billion in foreign USAID payments. Unbelievable.
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) March 5, 2025
Justice Samuel Alito BLASTS the majority with Justices Thomas, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh joining in dissent:
"Does a single district-court judge who… pic.twitter.com/mt8eL4yj7L
The Trump team fought back, with acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris appealing to the D.C. Appeals Court, which declined to step in due to jurisdictional limits. A last-minute plea to Chief Justice John Roberts bought a brief delay, but the full Court ultimately backed Ali’s ruling, despite dissent from Justices Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh.
ALITO, J., dissenting:
Today, the Court makes a most unfortunate misstep that rewards an act of judicial hubris and imposes a $2 billion penalty on American taxpayers. The District Court has made plain its frustration with the Government, and re- spondents raise serious concerns about nonpayment for completed work. But the relief ordered is, quite simply, too extreme a response. A federal court has many tools to ad- dress a party’s supposed nonfeasance. Self-aggrandize- ment of its jurisdiction is not one of them. I would chart a different path than the Court does today, so I must respect- fully dissent.
The administration argued the tight deadline was impractical and that Ali’s Feb. 25 order threw their review process into disarray. The Coalition countered that any urgency was the administration’s own fault, noting it had two weeks to act before Ali enforced compliance, simply restoring the prior contractual status quo.
TLDR: The Supreme Court has 5-4 ruled that a sole judge can order billions of dollars out the door–unrecoverable. Justice Alito’s shock is appropriate. SCOTUS’s unwillingness to police the judicial resistance is worrying–hopefully this is resolved on the merits, soon.