The US Supreme Court has rejected a request by the Trump administration to withhold nearly $2bn-worth of payments (£1.6bn) to foreign aid organisations for work they have already performed for the government.
On Wednesday, the top court upheld a lower court ruling ordering the administration to release the funds to contractors and grant recipients of the US Agency for International Development and the State Department.
Since taking office, President Donald Trump has cut numerous aid programmes and placed most USAID staff on leave or dismissed them.
Aid agencies argue these actions have jeopardised life-saving operations worldwide.
Last month District Judge Amir Ali had ordered the State Department and USAID to pay the bills to contractors for the work already done by midnight on 26 February.
As the deadline approached, the Trump administration sought an emergency relief from the Supreme Court, arguing it was impossible to process claims in an orderly fashion in such a short period of time.
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts issued a brief administrative stay, before the full court acted on President Trump’s request.
On Wednesday, the top court in a narrow 5-4 decision declined to halt the lower court order that required the Trump administration to unfreeze the payments.
The court said that Judge Ali’s deadline for the immediate payment had now passed, and the district court should “clarify what obligations” the administration must fulfil to comply the order.
Conservative Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh dissented with the order.
“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?” Justice Alito wrote in a dissent joined by the three other conservative justices. “The answer to that question should be an emphatic ‘No,’ but a majority of this Court apparently thinks otherwise. I am stunned.”
The case was launched by two aid groups who went to court last month to challenge Trump’s 90-day pause on foreign assistance.
Federal Judge Amir Ali in the District of Columbia then issued a temporary pause on the cuts while he examined the arguments in the case.
The aid groups later argued that the government had failed to comply with the pause, forcing the federal judge to issue another order requiring them to at least pay for work that has already been completed.
Proceedings in the case will continue, and the district court is set to hold a hearing on the contractors’ request for longer relief on Thursday.
The Trump administration is seeking to shrink the federal workforce and cut costs in a drive led by tech billionaire Elon Musk.
The cutbacks to USAID have already upended the global aid system.
Hundreds of programmes have been frozen in countries around the world since the president announced his intentions in January.
The US is by far the biggest single provider of humanitarian aid around the world.
It has bases in more than 60 countries and works in dozens of others, with much of its work carried out by its contractors.