{"id":172731,"date":"2025-09-27T10:03:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T10:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/172731\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T10:03:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T10:03:10","slug":"u-s-supreme-court-sides-with-trump-allows-government-to-withhold-4-billion-in-foreign-aid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/172731\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Supreme Court sides with Trump, allows government to withhold $4-billion in foreign aid"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

A health worker tends to a mother during a nutrition screening in Uganda, in July. Some legal experts have said Trump\u2019s clawback of billions of dollars has no historical parallel.Hajarah Nalwadda\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The U.S. Supreme Court sided again on Friday with Donald Trump<\/a>, allowing his administration to withhold about US$4-billion in foreign aid authorized by Congress for the current fiscal year as the Republican president pursues his \u201cAmerica First\u201d agenda.<\/p>\n

The case raises questions involving the degree to which a president has the authority to rescind funds Congress has appropriated for programs that do not align with his policies. The U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power of the purse.<\/p>\n

The justices for now granted the Justice Department\u2019s request to block Washington-based U.S. District Judge Amir Ali\u2019s order that had directed the administration to promptly take steps to spend the aid at issue in the dispute. Ali\u2019s decision came in a lawsuit by aid groups challenging the administration\u2019s action.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority. The court\u2019s three liberal justices dissented.<\/p>\n

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice keeps Trump funding freeze in place, threatening billions in foreign aid<\/a><\/p>\n

The court said in its unsigned order that the aid groups may lack the legal authority to bring their challenge. It also expressed concerns that ruling against Trump at this stage in the case threatened to impair his power to conduct foreign affairs.<\/p>\n

The court\u2019s liberals, in a dissent written by Justice Elena Kagan, called the ruling an affront to the constitutional principle that power is separated between the three branches \u2013 executive, legislative and judicial \u2013 of the U.S. government. They noted that the Constitution \u201cgives Congress the power to make spending decisions through the enactment of appropriations laws.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf those laws require obligation of the money, and if Congress has not by rescission or other action relieved the Executive of that duty, then the Executive must comply,\u201d Kagan wrote in a dissent joined by fellow liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.<\/p>\n

The administration said in court papers that the money it targeted is \u201ccontrary to U.S. foreign policy,\u201d reflecting Trump\u2019s effort to scale back U.S. assistance abroad as part of an \u201cAmerica First\u201d agenda. Trump also has moved to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development, the main U.S. foreign aid agency.<\/p>\n

The U.S. government\u2019s 2025 fiscal year ends on September 30. The US$4-billion in aid spending at issue in the case was intended by Congress for foreign aid, United Nations peacekeeping operations and democracy-promotion efforts overseas.<\/p>\n

Congress budgeted billions of dollars in foreign aid last year, about US$11-billion of which was set to expire at the end of the fiscal year.<\/p>\n

The administration sought to block the US$4-billion at issue in the case through a \u201cpocket rescission,\u201d an unusual move aimed at avoiding spending funds appropriated by Congress.<\/p>\n

The administration has repeatedly asked the Supreme Court this year to intervene to allow implementation of Trump policies impeded by lower courts. The court has sided with the administration in almost every case it has been called upon to review since Trump returned to the presidency in January. In an earlier iteration of the foreign aid case, the court in a 5-4 vote in March declined to let the administration withhold payment of some US$2-billion to aid organizations for work they already performed for the government.<\/p>\n

Nick Sansone, an attorney for some of the aid groups that challenged Trump\u2019s action, said the court\u2019s order on Friday \u201cfurther erodes separation of powers principles that are fundamental to our constitutional order.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will also have a grave humanitarian impact on vulnerable communities throughout the world,\u201d Sansone said.<\/p>\n

Ali ruled on Sept. 3 that the administration cannot simply choose to withhold the money, and that it must comply with appropriations laws passed by Congress unless lawmakers change them.<\/p>\n

Justice Department lawyers in court papers told the Supreme Court that Ali\u2019s injunction raised \u201ca grave and urgent threat to the separation of powers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be self-defeating and senseless for the executive branch to obligate the very funds that it is asking Congress to rescind,\u201d lawyers for the Justice Department wrote.<\/p>\n

Trump budget director Russell Vought has argued that the president can withhold funds for 45 days after requesting a rescission, which would run out the clock until the end of the fiscal year. The White House said the tactic was last used in 1977.<\/p>\n

Some legal experts have said Trump\u2019s attempted clawback of billions of dollars in congressionally appropriated funds in this manner had no historical parallel. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in a 2-1 ruling on Sept. 5 declined to halt Ali\u2019s order, prompting the administration\u2019s request to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court on Sept. 9 paused Ali\u2019s order while it considered how to proceed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: A health worker tends to a mother during a nutrition screening in Uganda,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,43,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,44,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,41,39,42,40,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-172731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-headlines","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-news","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}