Updated Mar 5, 2025 - Politics & Policy

USAID must pay nearly $2 billion in contracts, Supreme Court says

Avery Lotz

Chief Justice Roberts speaks to Trump after the president delivered a speech to Congress. — US President Donald Trump greets Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts as Trump departs after giving an address to a joint session of Congress in the House Chamber of the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on March 4. Photo: SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images

The Supreme Court refused to halt a lower court ruling Wednesday that required the Trump administration to unfreeze some $1.9 billion in foreign aid payments.

The big picture: Wednesday's order from the highest court marks one of the first times the justices have intervened since Trump's return to the White House as a litany of legal cases involving his administration's policies move through the federal court system.

The administration turned to the high court after U.S. District Court Judge Amir Ali ordered the administration to pay invoices and letter of credit drawdown requests to USAID and State Department contractors for work completed before Feb. 13.

Driving the news: The court split 5-4 in denying the government's request to overrule the lower court decision after Chief Justice John Roberts issued a stay pausing Ali's order one week ago.

Ali initially set a Feb. 26 deadline for the administration to disburse payments.
Because that deadline has passed, Roberts wrote in the court's opinion, the district court should "clarify what obligations" the administration must fulfill to comply with Ali's order.

Catch up quick: Last month, Ali ordered the administration to temporarily restore funding — only to reiterate that order days later, finding the administration had "not complied" fully.

The lawsuit was brought by organizations that said Trump's 90-day freeze impacted their work on foreign aid, which the plaintiffs consider an unconstitutional overreach "harming global health and security."
As part of a Department of Government Efficiency-led upheaval of the federal bureaucracy and search for "waste" in the government, the Trump administration said last week it would nix 92% in foreign assistance-related grants.
While Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said the department would issue a waiver exempting life-saving humanitarian aid from the freeze, organizations across the globe — and an official within USAID — say resources remain unreachable.

Zoom out: The U.S. government is the world's largest humanitarian donor, per the United Nations.

But the funding freeze, coupled with the DOGE-led dissection of USAID, casts the nation's humanitarian presence into uncertainty, leaving organizations across the globe scrambling.

What we're watching: The justices will likely have more work to do as lawsuits over Trump's most sweeping executive actions set the stage for potentially historic showdowns in the nation's highest court.

Multiple lower judges have ordered freezes on key Trump 2.0 agenda items, from his plan to end birthright citizenship to his restrictions on transgender rights.
But the conservative-leaning court will have the final say.

Go deeper: Exclusive: Oversight Dems open probe into Trump's USAID purge

Editor's note: This story has been updated throughout with additional information.

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USAID must pay nearly $2 billion in contracts, Supreme Court says

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