Secretary John Roberts temporarily delayed the midnight deadline as the Trump administration nearly freezes $2 billion in foreign aid paymentswas imposed by a lower judge who discovered that the administration had disregarded his ruling.
The administration said it could not resume payments on the prompt schedule set by US District Judge Amir Ali to be viable.
“This new order is a 36-hour invasion of administrative privileges and requires the payment of huge amounts of foreign aid funds. The president's power is at the top of it, and the judicial power is at the bottom of it in diplomatic matters,” deputy Attorney General Sarah Harris wrote in an emergency motion to the High Court.
By default, this request was sent to Roberts. Roberts handles emergency appeals arising from the country's capital. His suspension continues until the court decides whether to wipe out Ali's ruling. Roberts can decide himself or mention the full court for the sake of voting.
Roberts ordered the plaintiffs to respond to the court application by noon Friday.
For now, however, Roberts' decision means the administration doesn't need to release funds by midnight, giving Trump a temporary victory in his broader effort to dismantle USAID.
However, USAID contractors and nonprofits sued in Limbo.
In a court application, the coalition wrote that unless the administration is rewarded, several plaintiffs and their members could be forced to suspend operations this week, claiming that “time is really the essence.”
“After 12 days of letters and spirit fling the district court's temporary restraining order, demanding three times more compliance than twice as much as two — the defendant brings this premature appeal to avoid the order of the Section III court,” wrote attorney Stephen Worth.
“The length of government disregarding court orders because of its goal of ending life-saving humanitarian assistance is phenomenal,” said Alison Zieve, director of the Public Citizens' Litigation Group, which represents one of the plaintiffs' groups, in a statement.
The Justice Department pushed back and argued that there were other legal measures in which the group attempted to access funding that they believed were owed.
Since taking office, Trump has called for the USAID to be effectively dismantled, including an executive order that calls for a suspension of all federal aid payments. Most USAID staff are placed on administrative leave, blocked from access to offices and internal systems, and many other staff have been fired.
This initiative is because Trump is trying to transform federal spending to align with his administration's agenda.
Before former President Biden appointee Ali set a midnight deadline, he determined that the Trump administration had violated his orders, but refused to retain civil contagious staff for the violation.
In another case, a federal judge in Rhode Island ruled that the Trump administration dodged a court order and did not freeze US federal aid completely despite an order that blocked the suspension.
AT10:05 PM EDT updated
