The administration of President Donald Trump has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in its bid to withhold billions of dollars from foreign aid organisations, seeking to lift an injunction that compels it to continue disbursing funds.
In an emergency filing on Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Justice urged the conservative-majority court to overturn the injunction, noting that a 2-1 panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit had earlier ruled it should be vacated.
Despite that ruling, the injunction issued by Washington-based U.S. District Judge Amir Ali remains in place after the full appeals court last week declined to suspend it. Ali, an appointee of Democratic President Joe Biden, rejected a similar request on Monday.
Trump ordered a 90-day freeze on all foreign aid on January 20, the day of his second inauguration. The executive order was followed by steps to weaken the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), including placing much of its staff on leave and considering moves to bring the agency under the State Department.
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Two nonprofit organisations the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition and the Journalism Development Network sued the administration, arguing that the aid suspension was unlawful. Ali subsequently ordered the government to pay nearly $2 billion in outstanding aid to humanitarian partners worldwide.
In its Supreme Court filing, the administration argued that the injunction covers tens of billions of congressionally appropriated dollars, including about $12 billion the State Department must spend before September 30 or risk expiration.
The Justice Department said that without intervention from the justices, the government would be forced to continue payments “overriding the Executive Branch’s foreign-policy judgments regarding whether to pursue rescissions and thwarting interbranch dialogue.”
Lawyers for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In March, the Supreme Court, in a narrow 5-4 vote, declined to shield the administration from making the required payments. However, the D.C. Circuit panel later found that the nonprofits did not meet the threshold for an injunction, ruling that only the U.S. Government Accountability Office could challenge Trump’s efforts to withhold the funding.
