Supreme Court Rules Trump Can Withhold $4B In Foreign Aid
The Supreme Court on Friday cleared the way for President Donald Trump to freeze more than $4 billion in foreign aid, handing the administration a major legal win in a 6-3 ruling.
The decision allows Trump to proceed with a rarely used “pocket rescission,” a budget maneuver that lets the White House block funds late in the fiscal year without needing congressional approval. The funds, set to expire Sept. 30, had been earmarked for nonprofit groups and foreign governments.
“This is a massive victory in restoring the President’s authority to implement his policies,” a spokesperson for the White House Office of Management and Budget said. “Left-wing groups’ ability to seize control of the president’s agenda has been shut down.”
The Court’s majority said the “harms to the Executive’s conduct of foreign affairs appear to outweigh the potential harm” to organizations such as the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition and the Global Health Council, which had sued to force the funds’ release.
The ruling came after Chief Justice John Roberts issued an emergency order earlier this month, temporarily blocking a lower court’s decision. U.S. District Judge Amir Ali, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, had previously ruled that Congress would have to approve the rescission proposal before Trump could withhold the money.
Trump notified Speaker Mike Johnson in late August that he intended to cancel $4 billion in spending, including $3.2 billion in USAID development assistance, $322 million from the USAID-State Department Democracy Fund, and $521 million in State Department contributions to international organizations.
The Court’s ruling does not settle the broader question of whether presidents have sweeping authority to unilaterally impound funds approved by Congress, but it does mark the first time in nearly 50 years that a pocket rescission has been successfully used.
Justice Elena Kagan, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented. “The effect of its ruling is to allow the Executive to cease obligating $4 billion in funds that Congress appropriated for foreign aid, and that will now never reach its intended recipients,” Kagan wrote. “Because that result conflicts with the separation of powers, I respectfully dissent.”