The Trump administration made a last-ditch appeal to the Supreme Court on Wednesday evening to avoid having to release $2 billion in foreign aid.
The Context
The aid was blocked after President Donald Trump signed an executive order his first day in office ordering the funding freeze while his administration scoured the U.S.’s spending for what Trump and his allies characterize as “waste, fraud and abuse.”
Earlier this week, a lower court judge ordered the administration to unblock the aid in response to a lawsuit filed by nonprofit organizations in connection to the Trump administration’s freezing of foreign assistance through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the State Department.
The judge in the case gave the Trump administration until 11:59 p.m. ET on Wednesday to release the funds.
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What To Know
In its Wednesday evening filing, the Trump administration said the lower court’s order to unfreeze the funds “has thrown what should be an orderly review by the government into chaos.”
“Such wholesale, universal relief plainly exceeds what district courts can order under Article III and principles of equity and effectively allows a single federal district court to supervise the federal government’s contracting decisions regarding foreign aid—an area where the Executive Branch ordinarily has the broadest discretion,” the filing said.
The Trump administration went on to argue that the lower court did not have the jurisdiction to issue its order, saying that “the federal government has sovereign immunity from this type of breach-of-contract claim everywhere but the Court of Federal Claims.”
The AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition and the Global Health Council brought the case against Trump, the State Department, USAID and other government officials and agencies.
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit argued that the Trump administration ran afoul of federal law by unilaterally freezing the funding, which jeopardized life-saving programs across the world.
The contractors argued that the Trump administration owed them hundreds of millions of dollars and forced them to lay off thousands of workers while pushing them to the brink of bankruptcy.
This story is developing and will be updated as more information becomes available.
The Associated Press contributed reporting to this story.