Washington (AP) – supreme court On Friday, he extended an order that would allow President Donald Trump’s administration to maintain a freeze of nearly $5 billion. Foreign aidhanding him another victory in a conflict over the presidential forces.
Three liberal justice challenged the court’s conservative majority granted the Republican administration’s emergency appeal in a lawsuit that included billions of dollars in Congress-approved aid. Trump said last month He won’t spend moneycalling the disputed powers that the president last used about 50 years ago.
The Department of Justice has called for the High Court’s intervention after US District Judge Amir Ali It was determined that Trump’s actions were likely illegal. And Congress will have to approve the decision to withhold funds.
The Federal Court of Appeal in Washington refused to hold back Ali’s decision, but Supreme Court Justice John Roberts I temporarily blocked September 9th. The full court extended Roberts’ order indefinitely.
The Trump administration has previously been Strip legal protection From hundreds of thousands of immigrants, Launch thousands of federal employees, Drop out transgender members of the military and Remove independent government heads.
Legal victory is not a final verdict, but everything has been used sparingly under the previous president and sparingly in a swift case to the Supreme Court.
Trump is R-La. He told House Speaker Mike Johnson in an August 28 letter that he would not spend the $4.9 billion approved by Congress. Foreign aideffectively cut your budget without passing through legislative branches.
He used something like that Pocket withdrawal. This is an operation that is rarely used when the president submits a request to Congress to not spend the money approved at the end of the current budget year. Late notifications essentially flip the script. Under federal law, Congress must approve the withdrawal within 45 days. Otherwise you will have to spend your money. However, the budget year ends before the 45-day windows close, and in this situation the White House argues that it can avoid spending money due to inaction by Congress.
The majority wrote with an order that Trump’s authority over diplomacy was heavily placed in the decision, but warned that he had not given a final sentence in the case.
But it was cold comfort for the opponents. “The effect is to ensure that the fund does not reach its intended recipients. Not only now (for long-term activation), Judge Elena Kagan has joined Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson.
The Trump administration has deeply reduced one of its distinctive policies to foreign aid, in connection with relatively poor savings. deficit And it could damage America’s reputation overseas as people lose access to food supplies and development programs.
The High Court’s decision “further erodes the separation of the fundamental principles of authority in our constitutional order,” said Nick Sanson, an attorney for the Public Civil Litigation Group, representing the Coalition for the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy in the case. “It will also have a significant humanitarian impact on vulnerable communities around the world.”
A Justice Department lawyer last month told a federal judge that an additional $6.5 billion in aid, which was subject to the freeze, will be spent by the end of next Tuesday.
The case has been passing through court for several months and Ali said he understood that his ruling was not the last word on the matter.
“This case raises immeasurable legal and practical issues, such as whether there is a way to test the administration’s decision not to spend the funds allocated to Congress,” he wrote.
In August, the District of Columbia Circuit abandoned an earlier injunction issued to require Ali to spend the money. However, the three judge panels did not close the case.
After Trump issued a notice of retraction, the plaintiffs returned to Ali’s court, where the judge issued an order currently being challenged.
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