A divided U.S. Supreme Court declined on Wednesday to let President Donald Trump's administration withhold payment to foreign aid organizations for work they already performed for the government as the Republican president moves to pull the plug on American humanitarian projects around the world. - REUTERS
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00:00A divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the administration of U.S. President Donald
00:04Trump on Wednesday, upholding a lower court's decision that the government cannot withhold
00:09payment to foreign aid organizations for work they've already performed.
00:13The legal setback comes as the Republican president moves to pull the plug on American
00:16humanitarian projects around the world.
00:19Pursuing what he has called a quote, America First agenda, Trump ordered a 90-day pause
00:24on all foreign aid in his first day back in office.
00:27That order, and ensuing stop work orders halting U.S. Agency for International Development
00:31operations around the world, have jeopardized delivery of life-saving food and medical aid,
00:36throwing global humanitarian relief efforts into chaos.
00:39Aid organizations accused Trump in lawsuits of exceeding his authority under federal law
00:43by stepping into an area that's a matter for Congress.
00:46Here's New York University law professor Peter Shane.
00:49Departments, agencies, offices get set up through congressional authority.
00:55Either Congress writes the organization plan or it can give power to the president to set
01:01some things up.
01:02The president can set things up within what's called the executive office of the president.
01:08But USAID was created by statute, Consumer Finance Protection Bureau created by statute,
01:14Department of Education created by statute.
01:17Those statutes cannot be effectively repealed by executive action.
01:23A Washington-based U.S. district judge last month ordered the administration release approximately
01:27$2 billion in funding to contractors and grant recipients.
01:31Trump appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
01:33His solicitor general wrote in a filing that the lower court order should be blocked, saying
01:37would quote, unlawfully commandeer federal payment processes.
01:41But Chief Justice John Roberts and fellow conservative Amy Coney Barrett joined the
01:44court's three liberal members in rejecting the Trump administration's appeal.
01:48Conservative Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh
01:52dissented from the decision.
01:54The court did not provide a rationale for its unsigned order on Wednesday.