- The Supreme Court ruled against the Trump administration over USAID’s funding.
- The decision upholds a lower court’s ruling to release funds to USAID contractors.
- Justice Samuel Alito dissented, saying he was “stunned” by the high court’s ruling.
The US Supreme Court on Wednesday sided against the Trump administration and upheld a lower court’s decision to force the release of nearly $2 billion in foreign aid funds.
The nation’s high court ruled 5-4 in rejecting the Trump administration’s request to cancel the foreign aid money from the US Agency for International Development.
Justice Samuel Alito, in his dissenting opinion, wrote that he was “stunned” by the court’s decision that ultimately forces the Trump administration to pay out the billions to USAID contractors.
“Does a single district-court judge who likely lacks jurisdiction have the unchecked power to compel the Government of the United States to pay out (and probably lose forever) 2 billion taxpayer dollars? The answer to that question should be an emphatic ‘No,’ but a majority of this Court apparently thinks otherwise. I am stunned,” Alito wrote in his dissenting opinion.
The opinion was joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh.
Alito wrote that the Trump administration has “shown that it is likely to suffer irreparable harm if a lower court’s decision “is not stayed.”
“The Government has represented that it would probably be unable to recover much of the money after it is paid because it would be quickly spent by the recipients or disbursed to third parties,” Alito wrote.
Alito added in his dissent that the Supreme Court made a “most unfortunate misstep that rewards an act of judicial hubris and imposes a $2 billion penalty on American taxpayers.”
The relief ordered by the Supreme Court, Alito said, “is, quite simply, too extreme a response.”
