A federal judge says President Donald Trump overstepped his authority in freezing almost all spending on U.S. humanitarian and development work abroad. Judge Amir H.

Summary

A federal judge ruled that Trump exceeded his constitutional authority by freezing USAID funding, stating Congress controls spending authority.

Judge Amir Ali ordered Trump officials to pay all of the roughly $2 billion it owed to aid groups and businesses but stopped short of ordering the reviving of the thousands of contracts abruptly terminated for U.S. aid and development work around the world.

Secretary of State Rubio announced the end of a six-week review resulting in elimination of 83% of USAID programs (5,200 of 6,200), with remaining programs transferred to the State Department.

Former USAID Administrator Natsios questioned what programs the administration actually supports, noting cuts to democracy, civil society, health, and emergency response initiatives.

  • hypna@lemmy.world
    6·
    4 days ago

    This is not true. The United States v Trump ruling was that a president can not be held criminally liable for their exercise of the powers of the presidency. It does not mean that anything the president does is legal. It does not even mean that every presidential action is legal. Courts can still rule that a president’s actions are illegal and order injunctions, or even find contempt if court orders are not followed. This has already happened several times in the last month.

    It’s a bad ruling but making it more catastrophic than it actually is does nobody any good.