#SCOTUS rejects #Trump admin’s bid to avoid paying #USAID contractors
The admin’s efforts to effectively dismantle the #ForeignAid agency led contractors to file suit claiming they're owed money.
#law #DeadBeatPresident #TheCrueltyIsThePoint #aid #ForeignPolicy #SoftPower #geopolitics #USpol
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-rejects-trump-administrations-bid-avoid-paying-usaid-con-rcna194230
#SCOTUS on Wednesday backed a federal judge's #power to order the #Trump admin to pay $2B to #USAID contractors but did not require immediate payment.
In doing so, the court on a 5-4 vote rejected an emergency application filed by the #DOJ after #US District Judge Amir Ali issued a series of rulings demanding the government unfreeze funds that Trump put on hold with an #ExecutiveOrder.
#law #DeadBeatPresident #TheCrueltyIsThePoint #aid #ForeignPolicy #SoftPower #geopolitics #USpol
The court delayed acting on the case for a week. In the meantime, the contractors have not been paid since the start of #Trump’s term.
In an unsigned order, #SCOTUS said that Judge Ali's deadline for the immediate payment had now passed & the case is already proceeding in the district court, w/more rulings to come. A hearing is scheduled for Thurs.
As such, Ali "should clarify what obligations the government must fulfill" in order to comply w/a TRO issued Feb 13, the court said.
Judge Ali should consider "the feasibility of any compliance deadlines," #SCOTUS added.
4 conservative justices dissented from the denial of the application, w/Justice #Alito writing that Ali did not have "unchecked power to compel the government to pay out ... 2 billion taxpayer dollars."
"I am stunned," Alito added.
The other dissenters were Justices #ClarenceThomas, #NeilGorsuch & #BrettKavanaugh.
#law #DeadBeatPresident #TheCrueltyIsThePoint #USAID #ForeignPolicy #geopolitics #USpol
So apparently Justices Samuel #Alito, #ClarenceThomas, #NeilGorsuch & #BrettKavanaugh don’t believe in the power of the #judiciary, their own power, or the #SeparationOfPowers.
They believe that the president is in fact above the #law — as long as that president is #Trump.
Here is the order, Alito’s self sabotaging dissent starts on page 2.
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24a831_3135.pdf
#DeadBeatPresident #TheCrueltyIsThePoint #USAID #aid #ForeignPolicy #SoftPower #geopolitics #USpol
@Nonilex no, those justices don't believe presidents are above the law or doubt their own power.
They're emphatically saying everyone, including the president and lower courts, must abide by the law.
The majority seemed to be getting it wrong.
If anything, it's the majority who don't believe in their own power to reverse an error from the lower court.
