The Department of Justice submittedEmergency applicationThe Supreme Court on Wednesday called for the Trump administration to block the midnight deadline for nearly $2 billion in locked-down foreign aid payments.
A federal judge set deadlines after the administration failed to comply with his previous ruling to resume the flow of foreign aid agreements and grants as the lawsuit continued.
“The court's 11:59:30pm deadline has moved all goal posts,” deputy Attorney General Sarah Harris wrote in the motion.
“It's not adjusted to the actual payment deadlines related to the respondent's invoice or drawn requests, or someone else's invoice, and it threw something that throws an orderly review by the government into confusion,” she continued.
Harris called for the immediate blockage of late night deadlines until the court can resolve the claim, and argued that the government could not resume payments by then.
“What's worse, the order puts the government at risk of lightly empty cases and other sanctions,” Harris wrote.
The Department of Justice had filed a similar request with the US Court of Appeals in the DC Circuit. This denied the appeal It's been a few minutes since the administration went to the Supreme Court.
Trump is trying to suspend all foreign aid payments and drive a wave of lawsuits as part of a broader effort to dismantle the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
Earlier this month, former President Biden appointee, US District Judge Amir Ali issued a temporary order that would force the administration to halt its suspension work order and resume funding due to the contract that existed before Trump took office. The ruling comes after a coalition of USAID contractors and nonprofits was sued.
Ali warned that a Wednesday night deadline was set a day ago, and there was a risk of laying off other dramatic workers after the plaintiffs raised alarm that funds remained inaccessible.
The new Supreme Court filing marks the Trump administration's second emergency appeal of justice since taking office.
The Justice Department also sought an emergency order that greens up Trump's firing of the head of the government's whistleblower office, but so far the court has rejected its obligations by resorting to demands.
Updated at 8:21pm
