US Supreme Court rules Trump administration can withhold $4B in foreign aid

HOUSTON, United States

The US Supreme Court ruled Friday that the Trump administration can withhold $4 billion in foreign aid approved by Congress, according to media reports.

President Donald Trump has asserted his authority in the last several months to unilaterally override decisions by Congress, including telling lawmakers that he does not intend to spend the billions of dollars allocated for international relief.

A federal judge had ruled that the administration would have to spend the money by the end of the month, but the ruling from the nation's highest court now puts that on hold.

The brief order noted that the Trump administration has made a "sufficient showing" that the groups that sued the government were barred from bringing the lawsuit in question under a law known as the Impoundment Control Act.

The 6-3 conservative majority court also noted that "the asserted harms to the Executive’s conduct of foreign affairs appear to outweigh the potential harm" to the plaintiffs, which include groups that receive foreign aid.

Justice Elena Kagan was one of three liberal judges who dissented, writing that the legal issue in the case was in "uncharted territory " because such a case had not previously been presented.

The conservative majority justices granted Trump the victory to the dismay of their liberal counterparts.

"We therefore should have denied this application, allowed the lower courts to go forward, and ensured that the weighty question presented here receives the consideration it deserves," wrote Kagan.

She added that emergency relief "should be sparingly given," noting that "every such award disrupts the usual process of judicial review."

"The effect of its ruling is to allow the Executive to cease obligating $4 billion in funds that Congress appropriated for foreign aid, and that will now never reach its intended recipients," said added.