{"id":2410769,"date":"2025-03-06T21:13:01","date_gmt":"2025-03-07T02:13:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/judge-sifts-through-thorny-legal-questions-over-usaid-funding-after-supreme-court-order-washington-examiner\/"},"modified":"2025-03-06T21:15:19","modified_gmt":"2025-03-07T02:15:19","slug":"judge-sifts-through-thorny-legal-questions-over-usaid-funding-after-supreme-court-order-washington-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/judge-sifts-through-thorny-legal-questions-over-usaid-funding-after-supreme-court-order-washington-examiner\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge sifts through thorny legal questions over USAID funding after Supreme Court order &#8211; Washington Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fjudge-sifts-through-thorny-legal-questions-over-usaid-funding-after-supreme-court-order-washington-examiner%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2410769&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A judge recently addressed complex legal issues regarding U.S. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democrats-make-abortion-a-top-foreign-policy-priority\/\" title=\"Democrats Make Abortion a Top Foreign Policy Priority\">foreign aid funding<\/a> after the Supreme Court ruled that a lower court could\u2063 require the management to proceed with certain payments. Judge\u200b Amir Ali\u200b ordered the U.S. Agency for\u200b International Development (USAID) to pay nearly $2\u200d billion to various nonprofit organizations\u2062 that had sued \u2063the trump administration\u200b for freezing foreign aid funds. This payment\u200d is due for services rendered \u200cbefore mid-february.<\/p>\n<p>During the hearing, which lasted several hours, arguments \u200bwere presented concerning the constitutionality of the administration&#8217;s actions\u200c and compliance with the Administrative Procedures Act. Judge Ali suggested that a reasonable timeline for payments needs to be established. The nonprofit plaintiffs, including global health organizations and refugee assistance groups, argue that Trump&#8217;s funding freeze has caused important harm to humanitarian programs worldwide.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the judge&#8217;s previous restraining order, <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\">government officials faced challenges complying<\/a> with\u200b it, leading\u2063 to appeals to the Supreme \u2063Court.The \u2064Supreme Court upheld the lower court&#8217;s authority in a split \u200bdecision but cautioned about the practicality \u200dof the immediate \u200dpayment \u200ctimeline set \u200bby Judge Ali.<\/p>\n<p>The Trump administration, focused\u2064 on reducing the size of USAID and integrating its functions\u2062 into \u2063the State Department, maintains that the agency\u200b has mismanaged funds. the decision highlights ongoing tensions between the judiciary and the executive branch regarding foreign aid policies and funding mechanisms.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Judge sifts through <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wake-up-with-the-washington-examiner-republicans-unified-in-squeezing-dc-and-how-trump-can-target-birthright-citizenship-washington-examiner\/\" title=\"Wake up with the Washington Examiner: Republicans unified in squeezing DC and how Trump can target birthright citizenship - Washington Examiner\">thorny legal questions<\/a> over USAID funding after Supreme Court order<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_2028963\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p>A judge on Thursday examined arguments over President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/donald-trump\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Donald Trump<\/a>&rsquo;s decision to freeze billions of dollars in foreign aid after the Supreme Court <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/supreme-court\/3337771\/supreme-court-rejects-trump-foreign-aid-freeze\/\">ruled<\/a> this week that the lower court had authority to force the administration to make some payments.<\/p>\n<p>Judge Amir Ali decided at the end of the hourslong hearing that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/usaid\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">U.S. Agency for International Development<\/a> must pay nearly $2 billion by Monday evening in outstanding invoices to various nonprofit organizations that sued the Trump administration.<\/p>\n<div class=\"recommended-stories\">\n<h2>Recommended Stories<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/3339586\/hampton-dellinger-ends-lawsuit-challenging-trump-firing\/\">Federal watchdog head ends lawsuit challenging Trump firing<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/3339254\/judge-facing-maga-impeachment-calls-trump-funding-freeze\/\">Judge facing MAGA impeachment calls extends block on Trump funding freeze<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/3339215\/hunter-biden-art-sales-dried-up\/\">Hunter Biden ran out of money as art sales dried up, court filings say<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>Ali, a Biden appointee, said he felt that was a &ldquo;feasible&rdquo; interim resolution after hearing tedious presentations from the nonprofit groups and the Department of Justice about the Administrative Procedures Act and constitutional questions, including how the judge&rsquo;s order might properly account for the separation of powers.<\/p>\n<p>Ali&rsquo;s order only applies to payments owed for work completed prior to mid-February. The judge said he planned to hear more arguments in the coming days and weeks from the DOJ about other reasonable benchmarks he could set for the Trump administration to meet.<\/p>\n<p>The nonprofit groups are seeking a sweeping injunction against the government that would restore USAID, which Trump has moved to dismantle and fold into the State Department.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The relief would be depriving executive branch agencies of their spending latitude. That would be a harm that the court would have to weigh,&rdquo; a government attorney argued Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Ali imposed a restraining order on the Trump administration two weeks ago, but government officials struggled to abide by it, leading the administration to turn to the Supreme Court to avoid having to follow Ali&rsquo;s order.<\/p>\n<p>The Supreme Court rejected Trump in a 5-4 vote, but Chief Justice John Roberts suggested that the immediacy with which Ali expected the USAID to pay its bills was unrealistic and that the judge would need to come up with a specific and reasonable timeline.<\/p>\n<p>Ali was deferential to the high court throughout Thursday&rsquo;s hearing, repeatedly emphasizing that he needed to work urgently with the parties in the case to come up with &ldquo;concrete steps&rdquo; to reach a resolution, per Roberts&rsquo;s instruction. The DOJ attorneys emphasized that USAID no longer has the staff to fulfill contract obligations in any case because of the sheer volume of employees who have been laid off. They said the government is working to rehire the people it needs to access USAID&rsquo;s payment systems to meet the judge&rsquo;s requirements.<\/p>\n<p>The plaintiffs include the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, which conducts HIV treatment programs across the globe and had a five-year agreement with the government that ran through mid-2026.<\/p>\n<p>Others include the Global Health Council and HIAS, a Jewish refugee group. The plaintiffs are arguing that not only should their contracts be honored because they were funded through Congress but that Trump&rsquo;s executive order pausing all foreign aid must be reversed entirely. They said that the Trump administration&rsquo;s efforts to freeze or cancel the vast majority of its foreign assistance funding have had dire consequences.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The enormity of Defendants&rsquo; actions cannot be overstated,&rdquo; the plaintiffs&rsquo; attorneys wrote in a court filing, saying &ldquo;millions&rdquo; of people across the world have been affected negatively.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Staff who operate humanitarian operations at refugee camps in Syria were told to stop work, leaving thousands of people vulnerable to instability and violence at the hands of ISIS. Colombian anti-narcotrafficking helicopters were grounded for lack of fuel. Soup kitchens that feed nearly a million people in famine-stricken Khartoum have shut down. Clinical trials that had been underway in Uganda for a potentially lifesaving children&rsquo;s tuberculosis treatment stopped. In the Ivory Coast, a program to collect intelligence on Al Qaeda shut down. Toddlers in Zambia have been deprived of rehydration salts to treat life-threatening diarrhea,&rdquo; the plaintiffs wrote.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/supreme-court\/3337771\/supreme-court-rejects-trump-foreign-aid-freeze\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">SUPREME COURT REJECTS TRUMP ON USAID FOREIGN AID FREEZE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Trump administration has sought to shut down USAID as part of its efforts to slim down the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/better-than-expected-u-s-economy-added-638000-jobs-in-october-unemployment-dropped-to-6-9\/\" title=\"Better Than Expected: U.S. Economy Added 638,000 Jobs in October, Unemployment Dropped to 6.9%\">federal government<\/a>. The president has said the State Department still plans to pay for critical lifesaving services abroad while canceling 90% of the agency&rsquo;s contracts.<\/p>\n<p>Trump has said USAID has grossly mismanaged its funds in recent years and also allocated hundreds of millions of dollars to left-wing pet projects in other countries. A State Department official recently told Congress that the department was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/3338637\/state-department-considering-criminal-referrals-against-usaid\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">considering<\/a> making criminal referrals to the DOJ for alleged fraudulent spending by USAID.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script><script>!function(){var g=window;g.googletag=g.googletag||{},g.googletag.cmd=g.googletag.cmd||[],g.googletag.cmd.push(function(){g.googletag.pubads().setTargeting(\"has-featured-video\",\"true\")})}();<\/script><script>var _bp=_bp||[];_bp.push({\"div\":\"Brid_2028963\",\"obj\":{\"id\":\"27789\",\"width\":\"1280\",\"height\":\"720\",\"stickyDirection\":\"below\",\"video\":\"2028963\"}});<\/script><script defer src=\"https:\/\/services.brid.tv\/player\/build\/brid.min.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Judge reviews legal issues on USAID funding post-Supreme Court ruling<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":2410770,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/USAID-PROTEST-scaled-1024x683.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[6513,51699,32275,16381,32076],"class_list":["post-2410769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-funding","tag-legal-questions","tag-supreme-court","tag-usaid","tag-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/USAID-PROTEST-scaled-1024x683.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2410769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2410769"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2410769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2410773,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2410769\/revisions\/2410773"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2410770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2410769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2410769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2410769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}