Supreme Court Denies Trump Admin Request To Halt $2 Billion In Foreign Aid

Justice Samuel Alito dissented, saying he was “stunned” by the majority’s ruling.

By  Ashe Schow

Mar 5, 2025 

The Supreme Court on Wednesday dealt a significant blow to the Trump administration when it ruled that the federal government must pay out $2 billion to U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) contractors.

In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court rejected an emergency application from the Department of Justice seeking to overturn a district court judge’s demand that the administration unfreeze billions of dollars Trump halted through an executive order, NBC News reported. All three leftist judges were joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a President Donald Trump appointee.

Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh wrote a scathing dissent, with Alito saying he was “stunned” by the majority’s decision.

“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 asked in the dissenting opinion. “The answer to that question should be an emphatic ‘No,’ but a majority of this Court apparently thinks otherwise. I am stunned.”

Alito added that the majority effectively rewarded “an act of judicial hubris and imposes a $2 billion penalty on American taxpayers.”

The case began when a group of American businesses and nonprofits that receive funds from USAID claimed that Trump’s pause on foreign aid payments was unlawful. U.S. District Judge Amir Ali quickly issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) preventing the Trump administration from following through with the funding freeze. As Alito wrote, the lower court based its decision on the belief that the suing parties would succeed in showing that the Trump administration violated the Administrative Procedure Act when issuing the funding freeze. But after issuing the TRO, Alito wrote, “the District Judge grew frustrated with the pace at which funds were being disbursed.” So, less than two weeks after issuing the TRO, Ali issued a second order demanding the federal government pay out about $2 billion, brushing “aside the Government’s argument that sovereign immunity barred this enforcement order,” Alito wrote.

Ali also took two steps to ensure his order could not be stopped by higher courts, Alito wrote.

“First, he labeled the order as a non-appealable TRO, and second, he demanded that the money be paid within 36 hours.”

These steps meant the Trump administration had little time to prepare an argument against what it saw as a lawless order, Alito said, but moved for a stay pending appeal. But when the administration appealed, the U.S. States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia accepted the lower court’s onerous limitations and denied the appeal, bringing it to the Supreme Court.

“At the last moment, The Chief Justice issued an administrative stay,” Alito wrote. “Unfortunately, a majority has now undone that stay. As a result, the Government must apparently pay the $2 billion posthaste – not because the law requires it, but simply because a District Judge so ordered.”

“As the Nation’s highest court, we have a duty to ensure that the power entrusted to federal judges by the Constitution is not abused,” he continued. “Today, the Court fails to carry out that responsibility.”