Trump asks Supreme Court for emergency order to keep billions of dollars
in foreign aid frozen
[September 09, 2025]
By MARK SHERMAN
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Monday asked the Supreme
Court for an emergency order to keep billions of dollars in foreign aid
frozen.
The crux of the legal fight is over nearly $5 billion in congressionally
approved aid that President Donald Trump last month said he would not
spend, invoking disputed authority that was last used by a president
roughly 50 years ago.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Amir Ali ruled that the Republican
administration’s decision to withhold the funding was likely illegal.
Trump told House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., in a letter on Aug. 28
that he would not spend $4.9 billion in congressionally approved foreign
aid, effectively cutting the budget without going through the
legislative branch.
He used what’s known as a pocket rescission. That's when a president
submits a request to Congress toward the end of a current budget year to
not spend the approved money. The late notice means Congress cannot act
on the request in the required 45-day window and the money goes unspent.
Ali said Congress would have to approve the rescission proposal for the
Trump administration to withhold the money. The law is “explicit that it
is congressional action — not the President’s transmission of a special
message — that triggers rescission of the earlier appropriations,” he
wrote.
The Trump administration has made deep reductions to foreign aid one of
its hallmark policies, despite the relatively meager savings relative to
the deficit and possible damage to America’s reputation abroad as
foreign populations lose access to food supplies and development
programs. The administration turned to the high court after a panel of
federal appellate judges declined to block Ali’s ruling.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer called the ruling “an unlawful
injunction that precipitates an unnecessary emergency and needless
interbranch conflict.” He urged the justices to immediately block it.
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President Donald Trump speaks to the White House Religious Liberty
Commission during an event at the Museum of the Bible, Monday, Sept.
8, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
But lawyers for the nonprofit organizations that sued the government
said it's the funding freeze that violates federal law, noting that
it has shut down funding for even the most urgent lifesaving
programs abroad.
“This marks the third time in this case alone that the
Administration has run to the Supreme Court in a supposed emergency
posture to seek relief from circumstances of its own making — this
time to defend the illegal tactic of a ‘pocket rescission,’"
attorney Lauren Bateman of Public Citizen Litigation Group, lead
counsel for the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition plaintiffs, said in
a statement. "The Administration is effectively asking the Supreme
Court to bless its attempt to unlawfully accumulate power.”
Justice Department lawyers told a federal judge last month that
another $6.5 billion in aid that had been subject to the freeze
would be spent before the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.
The case has been winding its way through the courts for months, and
Ali said he understood that his ruling would not be the last word on
the matter.
“This case raises questions of immense legal and practical
importance, including whether there is any avenue to test the
executive branch’s decision not to spend congressionally
appropriated funds,” he wrote.
In August, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
Circuit threw out an earlier injunction Ali had issued to require
that the money be spent. But the three-judge panel did not shut down
the lawsuit.
After Trump issued his rescission notice, the plaintiffs returned to
Ali's court and the judge issued the order that's now being
challenged.
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