The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to overturn a lower court’s ruling that unfroze federal spending contracts at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), sparking backlash from conservatives who accused two right-leaning justices of siding against President Donald Trump.
In a narrow 5-4 decision, the Court rejected Trump’s request to keep billions of dollars frozen while the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) audits USAID contractor payments for waste, fraud, and abuse. Despite the ruling, administration officials have maintained that companies that legitimately fulfilled their contracts will receive payment once the audit is complete. However, the justices did not specify a deadline for releasing the controversial funds, allowing the Trump administration to continue challenging payment timelines in lower courts.
The ruling was unsigned, but four conservative justices dissented: Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Samuel Alito. The majority consisted of five justices: Chief Justice John Roberts, Amy Coney Barrett, Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Since a deadline to unfreeze the spending had already passed, the majority wrote, a lower court must “clarify what obligations the government must fulfill to ensure compliance with the temporary restraining order,” according to a copy of the decision obtained by CNN.
Alito, writing the dissent, said he was “stunned” by the majority opinion, calling it “a most unfortunate misstep that rewards an act of judicial hubris and imposes a $2 billion penalty on American taxpayers.” He added: “A federal court has many tools to address a party’s supposed nonfeasance. Self-aggrandizement of its jurisdiction is not one of them.”
Elsewhere, the Bush appointee acknowledges a well-founded “frustration with the Governor,” and that aid contractors raised “serious concerns about nonpayment for completed work.” However, refusing to lift a lower court’s order to unfreeze the funds immediately “is, quite simply, too extreme a response.” Steve Vladeck, CNN Supreme Court analyst and Georgetown University Law Center professor, explained that the ruling simply allows lower courts to decide the timeline for the eventual release of the funds.
“The unsigned order does not actually require the Trump administration to immediately make up to $2 billion in foreign aid payments; it merely clears the way for the district court to compel those payments, presumably if it is more specific about the contracts that have to be honored,” Vladeck said. “The fact that four justices nevertheless dissented – vigorously – from such a decision is a sign that the Court is going to be divided, perhaps along these exact lines, in many of the more impactful Trump-related cases that are already on their way.”
