The Department of Justice filed an emergency petition with the Supreme Court seeking to vacate a lower court-imposed deadline of 11:59 p.m. Wednesday for the Trump administration to unfreeze $2 billion of foreign aid.
On Inauguration Day, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that imposed a "90-day pause" in U.S. foreign development assistance "for assessment of programmatic efficiencies and consistency" with U.S. foreign policy.
But U.S. District Judge Amir Ali, a Joe Biden appointee, in Washington, D.C., ordered the government Tuesday to comply with his temporary restraining order by the end of Wednesday, according to The Hill. He previously directed the administration to restore the funding of foreign aid contracts and grants while litigation continues.
"The court's 11:59 p.m. 30-some-hour deadline thus moved all the goal posts," acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris wrote in the petition, according to The Hill. "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 DOJ reportedly filed a similar request with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, but that court has not yet acted, with just a few hours until the deadline.
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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