{"id":95954,"date":"2025-09-26T21:16:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T21:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=95954"},"modified":"2025-09-26T21:16:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T21:16:12","slug":"us-supreme-court-lets-trump-withhold-4bn-in-foreign-aid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=95954","title":{"rendered":"US Supreme Court lets Trump withhold $4bn in foreign aid"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>3 Minute, 7 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
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The\u00a0U.S. Supreme Court\u00a0sided again on Friday with\u00a0Donald Trump, allowing his administration to withhold about $4 billion in foreign aid authorized by Congress for the current fiscal year as the Republican president pursues his \u201cAmerica First\u201d agenda.<\/p>\n

The justices blocked Washington-based U.S. District Judge Amir Ali\u2019s order that had directed the administration to promptly take steps to spend the aid at issue in the dispute. Ali\u2019s decision came in a lawsuit by aid groups challenging the administration\u2019s action.<\/p>\n

The case centers on the degree to which a president has the authority to rescind funds Congress has appropriated for programs that do not align with his policies.<\/p>\n

The administration said in court papers that the money it targeted is \u201ccontrary to U.S. foreign policy,\u201d reflecting Trump\u2019s effort to scale back U.S. assistance abroad as part of an \u201cAmerica First\u201d agenda. Trump also has moved to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development, the main U.S. foreign aid agency.<\/p>\n

The U.S. government\u2019s 2025 fiscal year ends on September 30. The $4 billion in aid spending at issue in the case was intended by Congress for foreign aid, United Nations peacekeeping operations and democracy-promotion efforts overseas.<\/p>\n

Congress budgeted billions of dollars in foreign aid last year, about $11 billion of which was set to expire at the end of the fiscal year.<\/p>\n

The administration sought to block the $4 billion at issue in the case through a \u201cpocket rescission,\u201d an unusual move aimed at avoiding spending funds appropriated by Congress. The U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power of the purse.<\/p>\n

Ali ruled on September 3 that the administration cannot simply choose to withhold the money, and that it must comply with appropriations laws passed by Congress unless lawmakers change them.<\/p>\n

Justice Department lawyers in court papers told the Supreme Court that Ali\u2019s injunction raised \u201ca grave and urgent threat to the separation of powers.\u201d Under the U.S. Constitution, the government\u2019s executive, legislative and judicial branches are assigned different powers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be self-defeating and senseless for the executive branch to obligate the very funds that it is asking Congress to rescind,\u201d lawyers for the Justice Department wrote.<\/p>\n

Trump budget director Russell Vought has argued that the president can withhold funds for 45 days after requesting a rescission, which would run out the clock until the end of the fiscal year. The White House said the tactic was last used in 1977.<\/p>\n

Some legal experts have said Trump\u2019s attempted clawback of billions of dollars in congressionally appropriated funds in this manner had no historical parallel.<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs, in responding to the Justice Department\u2019s filing, said the administration\u2019s tactic, if allowed, \u201cwould provide the president unchecked power to rescind funds.\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in a 2-1 ruling on September 5 declined to halt Ali\u2019s order, prompting the administration\u2019s request to the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

In the foreign aid case, the U.S. Supreme Court on September 9 paused Ali\u2019s order while it considered how to proceed.<\/p>\n

The administration has repeatedly asked the justices this year to intervene to allow implementation of Trump policies impeded by lower courts. The Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, has sided with the administration in almost every case it has been called upon to review since Trump returned to the presidency in January.<\/p>\n

In an earlier iteration of the foreign aid case, the court in a 5-4 vote in March declined to let the administration\u00a0withhold payment\u00a0of some $2 billion to aid organizations for work they already performed for the government.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"USThe\u00a0U.S. Supreme Court\u00a0sided again on Friday with\u00a0Donald Trump, allowing his administration to withhold about $4 billion in foreign aid authorized by Congress for the current fiscal year as the Republican president pursues his “America First” agenda.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[993,1910,10,9,9364],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-donald-trump","category-international","category-politics","category-popular","category-us-supreme-court"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=95954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95954\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=95954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=95954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=95954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}