Washington — Chief Justice John Roberts has temporarily blocked a lower court ruling that ordered the Trump administration to release approximately $2 billion in frozen foreign assistance funds for State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) projects.
The emergency decision, issued late Wednesday, comes in response to a request from the Trump administration, which argued that the order—issued by U.S. District Judge Amir Ali—imposed an unrealistic deadline to distribute payments by 11:59 p.m. Wednesday. Judge Ali had ruled that the funds must be disbursed to contractors for work completed before February 13.
Roberts, acting alone as the justice overseeing emergency matters for the District of Columbia, granted the administration’s request to pause the ruling and has given the affected contractors until noon on Friday to file their responses.
Sweeping Foreign Aid Cuts
Meanwhile, the State Department has confirmed that it has cut more than 9,100 foreign assistance grants and contracts, slashing roughly $58.4 billion in funding. USAID alone has seen a 92% reduction in its grants and awards.
In its emergency appeal to the Supreme Court, acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris criticized the lower court’s ruling, calling it an overreach that disrupted the administration’s orderly review process.
“It is not tailored to any actual payment deadlines associated with respondents’ invoices or drawn-down requests, or anyone else’s. And it has thrown what should be an orderly review by the government into chaos,” Harris wrote.
She assured the Court that “officials at the highest levels of government” were actively reviewing payment requests and releasing funds where appropriate but argued that the district court’s tight deadline made full compliance “impossible.”
The Supreme Court’s decision on whether to permanently block the lower court’s ruling could have major implications for foreign aid funding and the administration’s authority to withhold previously approved financial commitments.