WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – The Supreme Court has paused a lower court’s order requiring the Trump administration to resume foreign aid payments.

The decision gives the Supreme Court more time to consider if the Trump administration illegally stopped foreign aid payments.

The decision on foreign aid Wednesday night comes on the heels of another case the justices heard that could make it easier to file so-called “reverse discrimination” lawsuits in the workplace.

Late Wednesday, Chief Justice John Roberts halted a lower court order requiring the Trump administration to resume foreign aid payments by midnight Wednesday.

About 90% of the foreign aid money doled out by the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, was halted last month when the agency was nearly shuttered by the White House and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.  

“The overall goal here with the DOGE team is to help address the enormous deficit we simply cannot sustain as a country, $2 trillion deficits,” said Musk.

Chief Justice Roberts’ order gives organizations suing the government until Friday at noon to respond.

The decision came just hours after the Supreme Court heard a separate case where the justices seemed ready to lower the bar for “reverse discrimination” lawsuits.

“Because again, discrimination is discrimination,” said plaintiff Marlean Ames.

Justices generally seemed sympathetic to plaintiff Marlean Ames, a former Ohio government worker, who says she was passed over for a job promotion and then demoted because she is straight.

“These positions went to gay individuals who did not interview for the job, did not apply for the job, and in one case did not even want the job,” said Ames’ attorney Edward Gilbert.

 The justices are considering whether people from majority-classes, like white or straight people, have to meet a higher standard to prove workplace discrimination, as lower courts have split on the issue, but even the lawyer representing Ohio, who said Ames’ sexual orientation was unknown to her superiors, seemed to concede to Ames’ argument.

“I think the idea that you hold people to different standards because of their protected characteristics is wrong,” said Ohio Department of Youth Services lawyer T. Elliot Gaiser.

A ruling on the discrimination case is expected this summer. It’s unclear when the court may issue an updated or final decision on the foreign aid payments.