The US Supreme Court has narrowly upheld an order forcing the Trump administration to distribute nearly $2bn for foreign aid work already carried out around the world, in a further legal blow to the White House’s drive to slash government spending.
The five-to-four decision on Wednesday comes after the administration argued that a federal judge who ordered the disbursements in February had no jurisdiction over contractual payments, and that it was up to Congress to act if it disagreed with the decision to withhold funds.
While a majority disagreed, Justices Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh dissented, with Alito writing that the high court had made an “unfortunate mis-step that rewards an act of judicial hubris and imposes a $2bn penalty on American taxpayers”.
The decision is the latest in a series of legal setbacks for the Trump administration. Lower courts have blocked its attempts to freeze federal grants, fire certain government workers and suspend refugee programmes, among other matters.
Last month, the Supreme Court ruled that the head of an independent watchdog agency fired by Trump could stay in post.
However, some courts have found in the Trump administration’s favour, refusing to stop Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency from accessing various data sets, and ruling that the CIA director had the authority to dismiss certain staff.
Wednesday’s Supreme Court decision was related to a lawsuit filed by global health groups and non-profit organisations challenging an executive order signed soon after Donald Trump’s inauguration, which ordered an immediate halt to all foreign aid.
The groups had argued that as well as falling foul of several federal laws, the move was an “unconstitutional exercise of presidential power in contravention of congressional will”.
Judge Amir Ali agreed, and twice ordered the Trump administration to resume payments. The plaintiffs claimed these orders were repeatedly ignored.
The White House has also not backed down from its assault on USAID, the agency tasked with distributing foreign aid that has been hobbled by the administration.
In his State of the Union address on Tuesday evening, Trump boasted that he had imposed a “freeze on all foreign aid”, reeling off a list of what he considered to be egregious spending by the US government in countries including Mozambique, Mali and Uganda.
In response to the Supreme Court’s order, pressure group Public Citizen, one of the organisations that brought the original case, said: “Trump is not a king. He cannot ignore the law.”