Supreme Court pauses order that Trump pay $2 billion in foreign aid

CNA Staff, Feb 27, 2025 / 13:10 pm (CNA).

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday night temporarily paused an order from a lower court directing the White House to pay out roughly $2 billion in foreign aid grants to nonprofit organizations.

The Department of Justice had filed an appeal with the ​​U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Tuesday night after U.S. District Judge Amir Ali ordered the administration to make payments to grantees by 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday. 

The Trump administration had frozen the funding as part of an extensive series of executive orders issued by President Donald Trump last month. Numerous Catholic entities have been affected by the freeze, though the Church was not involved with the suit at issue on Wednesday night.

The administration argued that Ali’s order forced the government to “pay arbitrarily determined expenses on a timeline of the district court’s choosing.” It further claimed the court “create[d] a payment plan” that was contrary to the president’s obligations under Article II of the Constitution and the principles of “federal sovereign immunity.”

In its petition to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, the Justice Department noted that the appeals court had not yet responded to the filing by late afternoon, leading the Trump administration to petition the high court “in light of that extraordinary circumstance.”

Chief Justice John Roberts on Wednesday night subsequently issued an order that the district court’s ruling was “hereby stayed” pending a further order. “Any response” from the nonprofits suing the Trump administration would have to be filed by Friday at noon, the chief justice said. 

The dispute before the high court is one of several legal challenges that have arisen after Trump issued numerous executive orders after taking office last month, including one that paused all foreign aid grants for 90 days. 

Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order said the “United States foreign aid industry and bureaucracy” are not aligned with American interests and “serve to destabilize world peace by promoting ideas in foreign countries that are directly inverse to harmonious and stable relations internal to and among countries.”

The funding freeze touched off a flurry of lawsuits from nonprofits and aid groups who said the White House had engaged in an overreach of its executive power. The groups further said the lack of funding would wreak havoc on vulnerable populations, including refugees and those in undeveloped countries. 

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops sued the Trump administration earlier this month over what the bishops said was an unlawful suspension of funding for refugee resettlement and aid programs. A federal judge last week denied the bishops’ request to block that freeze.

Several faith-based refugee services brought forward a similar lawsuit against the Trump administration earlier this month over its suspension of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. A federal judge in Seattle this week blocked that order, claiming the Trump administration had exceeded its authority in issuing it.

In further challenges to Trump’s executive orders, numerous religious groups have filed suit against the administration over its policy to allow broad immigration enforcement at houses of worship. Immigration officials were previously constrained from arresting illegal immigrants at churches under Biden-era guidelines. 

A federal judge earlier this week ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in one of those lawsuits, blocking suspected illegal immigrant arrests at some religious sites while the lawsuit plays out in federal court. 

Source: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/262465/supreme-court-pauses-order-that-trump-pay-2-dollars-billion-in-foreign-aid