President Donald Trump scored a major victory Wednesday against the activist federal judiciary that has repeatedly tried to undermine his presidency.
A federal appeals court has just ruled that the Trump administration can withhold nearly $2 billion in foreign aid frozen earlier this year.
In a 2-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit overturned a lower court’s preliminary injunction that had forced the administration to resume $1.98 billion in U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) payments approved by Congress.
The ruling is a decisive blow to the left-leaning district judge who had attempted to block Trump’s executive order halting nearly all foreign aid on his first day in office.
Judge Karen L. Henderson, appointed by President George H.W. Bush, wrote for the majority that the plaintiffs had no valid legal basis to challenge the president’s decision, known as “impoundment” in budget law.
Henderson made clear that the claims were statutory, not constitutional, and that the Administrative Procedure Act could not be used to override the Impoundment Control Act.
Henderson was joined by Judge Greg Katsas, a Trump appointee.
The lone dissent came from the court’s Democrat-appointed judge.
The ruling undercuts the activist lower court judge’s attempt to micromanage executive branch spending.
Trump and his allies have warned that the effort is part of a broader campaign by the weaponized judiciary to interfere with his policy agenda.
It’s the latest turn in a months-long legal battle that has already reached the Supreme Court.
In February, the high court’s liberal majority sided with the lower court, rejecting Trump’s bid to keep the freeze in place.
Four conservative justices, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh, blasted that ruling as judicial overreach.
“Does a single district-court judge who likely lacks jurisdiction have the unchecked power to compel the Government of the United States to pay out (and probably lose forever) 2 billion taxpayer dollars?” Alito wrote in his dissent.
“The answer to that question should be an emphatic ‘No,’ but a majority of this Court apparently thinks otherwise.
“I am stunned,” he added.
Critics of Trump’s foreign aid cuts claim the move risks damaging U.S. influence abroad.
Meanwhile, Trump has framed it as a long-overdue crackdown on waste, fraud, and abuse in taxpayer-funded projects overseas.
With Wednesday’s ruling, Trump has not only preserved his foreign aid freeze but he’s also delivered another high-profile defeat to the entrenched legal resistance working to block his America First agenda from the bench.
Our comment section is restricted to members of the Slay News community only.
To join, create a free account HERE.
If you are already a member, log in HERE.