SCOTUS Hands Trump a loss in multi-billion dollar USAID case

The U.S. Supreme Court, in one of its first rulings on the actions related to President Donald Trump’s numerous executive orders, has ruled against the administration in a case related to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Wednesday morning, in a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that had ordered the Trump administration to pay its bills, approximately $2 billion contractors say they are owed for U.S. foreign aid projects.

The Supreme Court did not order the administration to pay the $2 billion but directed the lower court to determine which bills and contractors must be paid and how much, as NBC News reported.

Politico adds that “the high court’s majority noted that a deadline the lower judge set last week to pay the bills had already passed, and the justices urged the judge to show ‘due regard for the feasibility’ of any future deadline he might set.”

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But Politico also warned the ruling, while “significant” is a “potentially short-lived victory for operators of foreign aid programs who warned of devastating consequences from the administration’s abrupt freeze and dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development. A broader legal fight over the future of the agency is continuing to play out in the lower courts.”

Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett—a Trump appointee—sided with the Court’s three liberal justices.

“The case is the second to reach the Supreme Court over Trump’s executive orders, but it is the first to involve impoundment — the claim that the president can unilaterally withhold or block funding that has been appropriated by Congress,” Democracy Docket reported. The D.C. District Court judge “had twice ordered the Trump administration to unlock the frozen foreign aid, but several nonprofits said funding was never restored.”

USAID is a $40 billion independent U.S. government agency established by President John F. Kennedy to promote democracy and bolster global support for the United States through humanitarian aid and economic development.

Spending less than one percent of the federal budget and working in 130 countries, USAID’s efforts are responsible for saving millions of lives around the world — battling diseases including HIV/AIDS and malaria, reducing infant mortality rates and improving maternal, infant, and child health, while providing emergency humanitarian assistance.