Federal judge presses pause on Trump foreign aid freeze

U.S. District Judge Amir Ali on Thursday ordered the State and Treasury Departments not to terminate any foreign aid contracts or employees pending litigation. Ali, who is based in Washington, gave the order after aid groups filed two lawsuits challenging the constitutionality and the legality of President Donald Trump’s efforts to pause federal aid funding. The groups also argued that they and their employees would suffer irreparable financial injury from the abrupt cancellation of all federal aid. The White House last month tried to implement a 90-day freeze of spending on foreign aid while it reviewed programs for efficiency and consistency with U.S. foreign policy.

Why did Judge Ali block this freeze? He found that the aid groups were likely to win when the case ultimately went to trial. He also wrote that federal officials could not provide a rational explanation for why they had to cancel all foreign aid before reviewing where the aid was going. Ali concluded that the federal aid freeze qualified as arbitrary and capricious.

How are the parties responding to the temporary order? The Global Health Coalition—one of the organizations that sued the administration over the funding freeze—on Thursday celebrated Judge Ali’s decision. The ruling cleared the way for foreign aid organizations to continue their lifesaving work, the group’s president, Elisha Dunn-Georgiou, said. WORLD reached out to the State Department for comment on the matter but did not immediately receive a response.

Dig deeper: Read my report in The Sift for how Trump adviser Elon Musk has argued for deleting entire federal agencies.