The Supreme Court on Friday allowed the Trump administration to withhold $4 billion in foreign aid that had been appropriated by Congress in a major test of Mr. Trump’s efforts to wrest the power of the purse from the legislature.
In its brief order, the court’s conservative majority said the president’s ability to conduct foreign affairs “appear to outweigh the potential harm” faced by foreign aid recipients. The court cautioned that its decision, technically a temporary holding while litigation continues through the lower courts, “should not be read as a final determination on the merits.”
The three liberal justices dissented, saying the issue before the court is too consequential to address through the emergency docket without full briefing or argument.
“The stakes are high: At issue is the allocation of power between the Executive and Congress over the expenditure of public monies,” wrote Justice Elena Kagan, who was joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Ann Marimow covers the Supreme Court for The Times from Washington.
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