DOJ Files Another Emergency Appeal After Court Yet Again Orders Foreign Aid Restored 

The Department of Justice filed an emergency appeal Monday asking the Supreme Court to pause a lower court demand that the Trump administration continue funding Biden-era foreign aid programs. 

The lower court order, issued Sept. 3 by Judge Amir Ali in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, requires the Trump administration to disburse almost $4 billion worth of foreign aid grants by Sept. 30.  

Those grants were originally designated by Congress in 2024 to be spent by the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development before the end of this month. But they were terminated by President Donald Trump in early 2025 following his order that “no further United States foreign assistance shall be disbursed in a manner that is not fully aligned with the foreign policy of the president of the United States.” 

The grant recipients appealed, kicking off a months-long legal battle in which Ali, a Biden appointee and a dual citizen of Canada, issued multiple orders demanding that the administration spend the money.  

The grant recipients included organizations such as the Global Health Council and the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition. 

In August, a federal appeals court said Ali’s decision was wrong but didn’t issue an order to reverse it—meaning Ali’s demand remained in place. That prompted U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer to take the case to the Supreme Court.  

Days later, though, on Aug. 28, the appeals court finally issued a mandate lifting Ali’s order, prompting Sauer to withdraw his petition at the Supreme Court. That same day, the Trump administration asked Congress to rescind the $4 billion in funding—a decision that Congress now has 45 days to consider. 

But on Sept. 3, Ali issued yet another preliminary injunction instructing the administration to spend the funds, saying that the Trump administration’s grant terminations likely violated the Administrative Procedure Act, a law that prescribes the formal process for executive branch agencies to create rules and regulations. 

Sauer appealed, but the appeals court denied his request for a stay on Friday—prompting him to take the case back to the Supreme Court Monday. 

In his petition, Sauer asks the court to pause the order while Congress considers rescinding the money, calling it “self-defeating and senseless” for the administration to be forced to spend the funds it’s asking the legislature to cancel. 

“The district court’s last-ditch injunction self-evidently harms the government and the political process,” posing “a grave and urgent threat to the separation of powers,” Sauer said. 

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