Court Orders Trump’s Administration to Release Millions in Aid by Monday

A U.S. federal court has ordered President Donald Trump's administration to restore millions of dollars in outstanding foreign aid before next Monday, March 10, 2025, at 6 p.m. 

The federal court's order came a day after the U.S. Supreme Court denied the Trump administration's request to halt District Court Judge Amir Ali's order to release $2 billion in frozen foreign aid payments, upholding Ali's order to lift the freeze. 

The Supreme Court stopped short of ordering the administration to immediately lift the freeze or setting a definitive deadline for restoring the funds. Instead, the court asked Ali to “clarify the government's obligations to ensure compliance” with the February order, allowing the district court to issue Thursday's ruling and compel the administration to restore payments to USAID contractors.

Although the court did not order the full disbursement of the $2 billion by deadline on Monday, the ruling will force the administration to release an unspecified amount of the outstanding foreign aid payments.

“During a four-hour hearing, the government continued to insist that shutting down humanitarian assistance was both reasonable and lawful. It also continued to take the position that the court has no authority to grant relief,” said Allison Zieve, director of Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy organization that brought the case on behalf of the nonprofits. 

“The court set a deadline of Monday evening for payments to [the suing nonprofits] that are overdue. He also indicated that he will set a timeline for payment of others’ overdue invoices.” 

“The funding freeze, it’s not continuing. It’s over,” government attorney Indraneel Sur reportedly told Ali during the hearing on Thursday.

The federal order lifting the funding freeze was the result of a lawsuit filed by the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition and the Journalism Development Network, OCCRP's parent organization. The lawsuit argued that President Trump lacked the authority to freeze international aid contracts while they were under review.

The Trump administration said in a filing Thursday that State Department officials worked overnight to approve nearly $70.3 million in additional payments to the nonprofits, which were expected to be released the same day. 

In accordance with Ali's February order, USAID estimates that it will disburse frozen foreign aid payments of at least $1.5 billion across 2,000 payment requests, the administration wrote in a status report demonstrating its compliance with the order.

The court originally ordered the administration to resume payments on foreign aid contracts and grants by 11:59 p.m. on February 26, a deadline the administration had said was “impossible” to meet.

The Supreme Court's order on Wednesday overturned an administrative stay issued last week by Chief Justice John Roberts in response to an emergency appeal by the administration that had temporarily blocked Ali's order to release the $2 billion in aid.

The administrative stay had put the district court ruling on hold, temporarily blocking Ali's order to release the $2 billion in aid to allow the Supreme Court time to consider the formal request to permanently freeze the payments.

Wednesday’s unsigned order was issued by a 5-4 vote that split the court. Five justices, including Roberts, voted to deny the administration's emergency appeal filed last week, while four conservative justices, led by Associate Justice Samuel Alito, dissented.

In line with the government’s position, Alito blasted the Supreme Court’s decision. He argued that the district court lacked the authority “to compel the Government of the United States to pay out (and probably lose forever) 2 billion taxpayer dollars… but a majority of this Court apparently thinks otherwise,” he wrote in his dissent.

“I am stunned,” Alito wrote.

In related news, hundreds of USAID and State Department diplomats protested that the dismantling of the foreign aid agency and the termination of aid contracts “without any meaningful review jeopardizes our partnerships with key allies, erodes trust, and creates openings for adversaries to expand their influence," according to a letter addressed to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.