Justice Samuel Alito wrote Wednesday that he is “stunned” by the majority’s failure to call out a lower court’s “judicial hubris” in the case considering the Trump administration’s foreign aid spending freeze.
In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court declined to block U.S. District Judge Amir Ali’s order requiring the government to pay $2 billion in foreign aid. Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily paused the order last week after Ali gave the Trump administration just a day to resume the payments.
Alito, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, slammed his colleagues in a dissent for neglecting their “duty to ensure that the power entrusted to federal judges by the Constitution is not abused.”
“Does a single district-court judge who likely lacks jurisdiction have the unchecked power to compel the Government of the United States to pay out (and probably lose forever) 2 billion taxpayer dollars?” Alito questioned. “The answer to that question should be an emphatic ‘No,’ but a majority of this Court apparently thinks otherwise. I am stunned.”
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
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