Washington — President Trump’s administration requested the Supreme Courtroom on Monday to permit it to freeze billions of {dollars} in international support funding, searching for its intervention in a conflict over the president’s refusal to spend cash allotted by Congress for international help applications.
The Trump administration is asking the excessive court docket to partially halt a decrease court docket order that required it to spend greater than $4 billion in support by the tip of September. Mr. Trump is trying to claw again that cash, which has already been accredited by Congress, by way of a hardly ever used maneuver often known as a pocket rescission.
The dispute additionally entails one other $6.5 billion in international help, although the Justice Division has mentioned it’s taking steps to obligate these funds by Sept. 30, the tip of the fiscal yr.
The authorized struggle rapidly arrived on the Supreme Courtroom after U.S. District Choose Amir Ali dominated final week that the manager department needed to spend the $4 billion in international support funding that Congress had appropriated. The Justice Division requested the U.S. Courtroom of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to freeze that call, although it declined to take action final Friday.
In searching for emergency reduction from the Supreme Courtroom, Solicitor Common D. John Sauer mentioned the district court docket’s injunction “raises a grave and pressing menace to the separation of powers.” He’s asking the Supreme Courtroom to pause the district court docket’s order solely as to the $4 billion that Mr. Trump is trying to rescind.
“The President can hardly converse with one voice in international affairs or in dealings with Congress when the district court docket is forcing the Govt Department to advocate towards its personal aims,” Sauer wrote.
