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SCOTUS steps in, Justice Roberts temporarily halts activist judge’s order forcing payment to USAID

February 27, 2025 | | Print Article

The Supreme Court may finally be ready to step in as Democrat-appointed activist judges have abused their power by issuing national restraining orders to thwart President Donald J. Trump’s government reforms.

On Wednesday night, Chief Justice John Roberts responded to the Trump administration’s request for emergency intervention to block a Biden-appointed federal judge’s order that around $2 billion in payments to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) contractors be made by midnight, a demand that officials said they could not meet.

“IT IS ORDERED that the February 25, 2025, orders of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, case Nos. 1:25-cv-00400 and 1:25-cv-00402, are hereby stayed pending further order of the undersigned or of the Court. It is further ordered that any response to the application be filed on or before Friday, February 28, 2025, by 12 p.m. (EST),” Roberts wrote in the order.

The administration told the nation’s highest court that the order from U.S. District Judge Amir H. Ali created “an untenable payment plan at odds with the President’s obligations under Article II to protect the integrity of the federal fisc and make appropriate judgements(sic) about foreign aid – clear forms of irreparable harm,” Fox News reported.

Justice Roberts’ order “does not resolve the underlying questions raised by the case. Rather, it imposed what’s known as an ‘administrative stay’ to give the court a few days to review written arguments in the case,” according to CNN.

“Neither the original TRO nor the district court’s subsequent clarifications in any way suggested that the government must pay particular invoices on particular dates,” acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris said in the request for the Supreme Court to step in.

“The court’s 11:59 p.m. 30-some-hour deadline thus moved all the goalposts,” Harris wrote. “It is not tailored to any actual payment deadlines associated with respondents’ invoices or drawn-down requests or anyone else’s. And it has thrown what should be an orderly review by the government into chaos.”

The Justice Department argued that the lower court “lacked any jurisdiction even to issue this order dictating contractual payments by a date certain to remedy purported contractual breaches.”

The administration said it would be ending more than 90 percent of USAID foreign contracts and 60 billion in U.S. assistance globally.

The Canadian-born activist was appointed by the outgoing Biden administration during the lame-duck period after the election, putting him in a position to sabotage the new president as a parade of federal lower court judges are now doing with their nationwide restraining orders that abuse the courts and erode public faith in the judicial system.

USAID was the first target of the Trump administration as Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) teams conducted audits of bloated federal agencies to assess the scale of waste and fraud, sending Democrats into a rage after their money laundering rackets were exposed and the cash spigot was cut off.

All eyes now shift to Friday, when the parties are to file their responses with the SCOTUS likely to act soon afterward, potentially paralyzing the lawfare onslaught of a party with no political power that is weaponizing the courts to stall the dismantling of corrupt institutions.

Chris Donaldson
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