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Left: Donald Trump watches a video screen at a campaign rally at the Salem Civic Center, in Salem, Va, Nov. 2, 2024 (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File). Right: Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts joins other members of the Supreme Court as they pose for a new group portrait, at the Supreme Court building in Washington, Oct. 7, 2022 (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File).
Chief Justice John Roberts on Wednesday night granted a request from the Trump administration to halt a lower court’s order directing the government to unfreeze nearly $2 billion in congressionally-approved funding just hours before the court-ordered deadline.
Roberts issued a one-page order granting an administrative stay “pending further order of the undersigned or of the Court,” which lifts a temporary restraining order placed on the administration’s funding freeze by U.S. District Judge Amir H. Ali nearly two weeks ago.
“This new order requiring payment of enormous sums of foreign-assistance money in less than 36 hours intrudes on the prerogatives of the Executive Branch. The President’s power is at its apex — and the power of the judiciary is at its nadir — in matters of foreign affairs,” the administration wrote in its 31-page emergency petition to the high court. “Here, the district court’s order blocks the Executive Branch not only from ensuring that foreign-aid payments are consistent with the President’s policy priorities, but from conducting even basic diligence to ensure that payments are free from fraud and abuse.”
The administration also took issue with the sweeping nature of Ali’s temporary restraining order, arguing that it prevents the government from analyzing the requests for funds on a case-by-case basis and making it “impossible” to abide by the court’s midnight deadline.
“That breadth is particularly inexplicable and unnecessary because, had the court tailored its order to provide relief for only respondents and their members, the order would have imposed much smaller financial and administrative burdens on the government,” Acting Solicitor General Sarah M. Harris wrote. “The State Department is already prepared to issue $4 million in payments to two respondents today, which should be received in two days. Instead, the court reached out far beyond its jurisdiction and ordered relief that will impose more substantial harms on the government, and by extension, the public.”
Litigation in the highly-watched case has moved at lightning speed over the last two days, beginning with an emergency hearing held Tuesday morning before during which plaintiffs presented the court with evidence that the administration had failed to abide by Ali’s temporary restraining order (TRO) prohibiting the implementation of the across-the-board freeze.
During those proceedings, Ali lambasted the government’s attorney for saying he was “not in a position to answer” whether any of the funds covered by the court’s order had been unfrozen
A frustrated Ali concluded the hearing with a series of onerous directions to enforce compliance with the temporary restraining order, instructing the administration to unfreeze funds for contract payments on work completed before Feb. 13, 2025, by 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday.
The administration immediately filed a petition with the Circuit Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia seeking a short-term administrative stay on Ali’s order as well as a stay pending appeal. The administration asserted that it would be impossible for the government to abide by the directive within the allotted time frame, claiming that it could not pay out “nearly $2 billion in taxpayer dollars within 36 hours” unless it were to disregard its own payment-integrity systems.
Wednesday morning’s emergency motion from the government further asserted that even if the appeals court declines to halt Ali’s order, government leaders had already determined that the ordered payments “cannot be accomplished in the time allotted by the district court.”
When the appeals court declined to take on the case, the administration petitioned the Supreme Court, leading Roberts to intervene at around 9:30 p.m. Roberts did not provide an explanation for his decision, ordering the plaintiffs in the case to respond to the Trump administration by noon on Friday.
While Roberts alone oversees petitions arising out of Washington, D.C., the case will certainly be referred to the full court.
As the court decides how to proceed, plaintiffs in the case have repeatedly asserted that the pause in funding has been devastating, leaving many who rely on the programs to “face starvation, disease, and death.”
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