The administration had been trying to run out the clock on paying the funds, with authorization set to expire next week

*This article was originally published in the Wall Street Journal

The Supreme Court on Friday granted the Trump administration’s emergency request to allow it to withhold $4 billion in foreign-aid spending that had been approved by Congress.

Over the objection of the court’s three liberal justices, the Supreme Court said in an order that the government had made a sufficient showing at this point that prospective beneficiaries of the aid can’t sue to force it to follow appropriations laws, under the federal law that governs the president’s ability to withhold funds.

The temporary order pauses a lower court decision that would force the federal government to spend the money by Sept. 30, when Congress’s appropriation is set to expire. The Trump administration has been trying to avoid paying the funds by running out the clock, in a case that has ping-ponged back and forth between the Supreme Court and lower courts for months. 

In a dissenting opinion, Justice Elena Kagan said the court was working in “uncharted territory” and deciding a legal question about a federal law it has only dealt with in passing.

“And, to repeat, the stakes are high: At issue is the allocation of power between the Executive and Congress over the expenditure of public moneys,” she wrote separately in an explanation for her dissent that Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson joined.

“While the court emphasized that this ruling is preliminary, the consequences are immediate and devastating: Lifesaving funds will not reach the communities and organizations working on the front lines of health and development around the world.” – Elisha Dunn-Georgiou

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