The Supreme Court rejected a bid by the Trump administration to continue withholding billions of dollars in foreign aid. In a 5-4 decision on Wednesday, the court declined to overturn a lower court ruling that ordered the administration to unfreeze over $2 billion in USAID funds to pay outstanding invoices and bills for work that has already been completed.

Conservative Justices John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett sided with the liberal minority in the ruling. 

“The application is denied,” the majority wrote, adding that a temporary stay implemented by Chief Justice Roberts on the release of the funds had also been revoked. “In light of the ongoing preliminary injunction proceedings, the District Court should clarify what obligations the Government must fulfill to ensure compliance with the temporary restraining order, with due regard for the feasibility of any compliance timelines.”  

In his dissent, Justice Samuel Alito — whose relationships with prominent conservative billionaires have raised questions about his ethics — asked if “a single district-court judge who likely lacks jurisdiction [has] the unchecked power to compel the Government of the United States to pay out (and probably lose forever) 2 billion taxpayer dollars?” 

“The answer to that question should be an emphatic ‘No,’ but a majority of this Court apparently thinks otherwise. I am stunned,” he wrote. 

Alito conveniently ignored the actual issue at hand in the lawsuit in favor of partisan jabbering. The lawsuit in question was not about whether the government could arbitrarily be compelled to pay out money to contractors, but whether the Trump administration could simply decline to pay organizations and contractors for work that has already been completed — essentially theft. Stiffing contractors was a common tactic of the Trump real estate empire. 

Despite the order from the lower court, the Trump administration has refused to liquidate much of the $2 billion in payments owed, and is continuing to litigate the matter in the District Court. USAID was one of the first targets of Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The agency has already been gutted of staff and ordered to stop virtually all work domestically and abroad. Last month, the administration announced that it plans to eliminate almost $60 billion in USAID contracts, and cut down over 90 percent of USAID foreign aid agreements. In a statement released Tuesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wrote: “Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) will lead to millions of preventable deaths. The decision of the richest person in the world to destroy an agency that delivers life-saving aid to the poorest people on the planet is unconscionable.” 

“Congress created USAID as an independent agency — it cannot be unilaterally eliminated by the president based on the whim of an unelected billionaire,” Sanders added. “These cuts will not only lead to millions of unnecessary deaths throughout the world, they are an attack on our democracy and the checks and balances our Founding Fathers established more than 230 years ago.” 

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio was sent a letter signed by over 700 State Department officials and foreign service officers expressing their opposition to the dismantling of the agency. 

“The current trajectory endangers American lives, weakens our global standing, cedes influence to authoritarian competitors, and undermines our economic dominance. We urge a course correction before irreparable damage is done to U.S. leadership, security, and moral authority in the world,” they wrote, according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Bulwark. “The freeze on life-saving aid has already caused irreparable harm and suffering to millions of people around the world. Starving, sick, vulnerable families and children in desperate need of humanitarian assistance are left without critical support.”

The Supreme Court’s decision on Wednesday to block the Trump administration from freezing aid is a much-needed win for aid groups, and a sign that the conservative court Trump helped put together during his first term might be willing to check some of his moves toward authoritarianism. We’re not counting on it, though.