The Supreme Court on Friday extended an order that allows President Trump's administration to keep frozen nearly $5 billion in foreign aid, handing him another victory in a dispute over presidential power. With the three justices appointed by Democrats in dissent, the court majority granted the GOP administration's emergency appeal in a case involving billions of dollars in congressionally approved aid, the AP reports. Trump said last month that he would not spend the money, invoking disputed authority that was last used by a president roughly 50 years ago.
The Justice Department sought the high court's intervention after US District Judge Amir Ali ruled that Trump's action was likely illegal and that Congress would have to approve the decision to withhold the funding. The federal appeals court in Washington declined to put Ali's ruling on hold, but Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily blocked it on Sept. 9. The full court now has indefinitely extended Roberts' order. Trump told House Speaker Mike Johnson in a letter dated 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.
Trump employed what's known as a pocket rescission. That's a rarely used maneuver in which a president submits a request to Congress toward the end of a current budget year to not spend the approved money. The late notice essentially flips the script. Under federal law, Congress has to approve the rescission within 45 days or the money must be spent. But the budget year will end before the 45-day window closes, and in this situation the White House is asserting that congressional inaction allows it to not spend the money. The majority wrote in an unsigned order that Trump's authority over foreign affairs weighed heavily in its decision, while cautioning that it was not making a final ruling in the case.
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