Supreme court upholds order requiring USAid to pay foreign aid groups
The supreme court has upheld a federal judge’s order that USAid pay $1.5bn to foreign assistance groups, despite Donald Trump’s attempt to dismantle the organization.
The decision saw the three liberal justices join with conservatives John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett in the majority. The four remaining conservatives, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, dissented.
Roberts had earlier stopped a deadline for USAid to disburse the funds while the court considered the matter. Here’s more on that:
Key events
Stephanie Kirchgaessner
The Trump administration is preparing to overhaul a $42.5bn Biden-era program designed to connect tens of millions of rural Americans to reliable and affordable high-speed internet, in a move that is expected to benefit billionaire Elon Musk.
Howard Lutnick, the commerce department secretary who has oversight of the federal program, recently told senior officials inside the department that he wants to make significant changes to the federal program, sources with knowledge of the matter told the Guardian.
Instead of promoting an expensive buildout of fiber optic networks – as the Biden administration sought to do – Lutnick has said he wants states to choose the internet technology that would be low cost for taxpayers.
That, experts agree, would favor satellite companies like Musk’s Starlink. Musk, whose company owns about 62% of all operating satellites, has not hidden his disdain for Biden-era program, telling voters last year that he believed it should be brought down to “zero”.
You can read more on this story here:
Joseph Gedeon
Democratic congressman Robert Garcia from California turned his gaze towards New York’s mayor, Eric Adams – but not just for his sanctuary city policy: he dug into his court dealings and called for his resignation.
Garcia said that he is “confident that Adams committed the crimes with which he is charged”, which include bribery and campaign finance violations.
Adams was tight-lipped. “There is no deal, there is no quid pro quo. I did not do anything wrong.”
Garcia wrapped with a call for Adams to step down. “I personally agree with the majority of New Yorkers and think, Mr Mayor, you should resign.”
Joseph Gedeon
What started out as a congressional grilling has instead morphed into a clear platform for pro-Democratic immigration city policies, but maybe that could have been assumed, all things considered.
The four Democratic mayors from Chicago, New York, Denver and Boston have had an outsized platform to speak, which has only benefited from friendly questions from congressional Democrats who insist that sanctuary cities are generally safer.
The day so far
The supreme court has upheld a federal judge’s order that USAid disburse $1.5b in payments to its partners, a setback in the Trump administration’s attempts to dismantle the agency. The lower court will now determine when the aid agency must pay its bills, while four of the court’s conservatives signed a dissent complaining that the decision is overly broad. Meanwhile, lawmakers are reacting to Donald Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress last night. The Democratic House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, condemned the remarks as excessively partisan, while the rightwing House Freedom caucus said it will propose censuring Democrat Al Green for disrupting Trump’s speech.
Here’s what else has happened today so far:
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Sylvester Turner, a Democratic former Houston mayor who was just elected to the House, has died at the age of 70.
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Trump thanked conservative supreme court chief justice John Roberts at the conclusion of yesterday’s speech, and said: “Won’t forget it.” For what, the president did not say.
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Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, told Bloomberg Television that Trump may announce changes to his tariffs on Canada and Mexico this afternoon.
Joseph Gedeon
Democratic mayors from major American cities are not backing down from a tense, GOP-led House oversight committee hearing as they defend their approach to protecting undocumented people in their city limits.
New York’s Eric Adams, Denver’s Mike Johnston, Boston’s Michelle Wu (who is in attendance with her one-month-old daughter) and Chicago’s Brandon Johnson are fielding questions about the national security implications of so-called sanctuary cities. But the mayors are biting back.
“If you wanted to make us safe, pass gun reforms,” Wu said. “Stop cutting Medicaid. Stop cutting cancer research. Stop cutting funds for veterans. That is what will make our cities safe.”
The room is filled to the brim, and the Republican committee chair, James Comer from Kentucky, indicated it would be a long hearing, with 60 members of Congress apparently interested in asking questions.
This post has been corrected to note that Boston’s mayor is Michelle Wu.
Trump told supreme court chief justice Roberts: ‘Thank you again, won’t forget it’
Donald Trump said many things during his speech to a joint session of Congress last night, but one of the most eyebrow-raising utterances came after he had wrapped up, and was leaving the House chamber.
The president walked past the supreme court justices who had attended the speech, and shook their hands. When he got to the chief justice, John Roberts, camera footage captured the president saying: “Thank you again. Thank you again. Won’t forget it.”
Won’t forget what? Roberts attending the speech? Perhaps. Or maybe it was a reference to the ways in which Roberts’s actions have helped the president out recently.
Last year, the chief justice joined with the court’s five other conservative justices to find that presidents have immunity for official acts, a decision that delayed then special counsel Jack Smith’s case against Trump long enough for him to win re-election and render the prosecution moot. Some legal observers now worry that Trump will use the protections created by that decision to push the boundaries of presidential power without fear of repercussions. In addition, Roberts and the conservatives handed down rulings against Joe Biden’s policies, such as his attempt to cancel some student loan debt.
The White House has not yet commented on Trump’s praise of the chief justice. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt holds a briefing at 1pm ET today, and perhaps she will be asked about it.
The Democratic House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, has released a statement paying tribute to congressman Sylvester Turner, whose death at the age of 70 was reported this morning.
“The House Democratic Caucus family is shocked and saddened by the sudden passing of Congressman Sylvester Turner. Though he was newly elected to the Congress, Rep Turner had a long and distinguished career in public service and spent decades fighting for the people of Houston,” Jeffries said.
He noted Turner’s advocacy to preserve Medicaid, the federal health insurance program for lower-income and disabled Americans that Republicans have proposed cutting:
Like those before him, Rep Turner was a fighter until the end – he was present yesterday evening to ensure that the voice of one of his constituents, who relies on Medicaid, was heard. In what would be his final message to his beloved constituents last night he reminded us ‘don’t mess with Medicaid.’
The entire House Democratic Caucus family is praying for the Turner family and staff, as well as the City of Houston. May he forever rest in power.
Top House Democrat says Trump gave ‘one of the most partisan and divisive speeches ever’
The Democratic House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, dinged Donald Trump for giving what he described as a “partisan and divisive” speech that failed to provide concrete steps to deal with Americans’ concerns about the cost of living.
In an interview with ABC News, Jeffries said:
I was struggling to hear anything relative to what the president had to say in terms of bringing the country together. That was one of the most partisan and divisive speeches ever delivered by an American president. And that’s unfortunate. We will continue to try to solve problems for everyday Americans.
He also stayed mum on whether he agreed with congressman Al Green’s heckling of the president:
The vast majority of Democrats showed restraint, listened to what the president had to say and, of course, we strongly disagree. The biggest problem that I had with the speech is that there was nothing said, nothing laid out, nothing articulated by Donald Trump to meet the needs of the American people, particularly as it relates to the economy.
Freshman Democratic congressman Sylvester Turner dies, aged 70 – report
Sylvester Turner, a Democratic former Houston mayor who was elected to the House of Representatives last year, has died, aged 70, local broadcaster ABC13 reports.
Turner replaced longtime congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, who died of pancreatic cancer in July 2024. Details of Turner’s death were not immediately available.
Beyond Al Green’s heckling, Democrats tried a variety of tactics to signal their displeasure with Donald Trump’s governance. Here’s a video looking at what they did:
Rightwing lawmakers propose censure of Democrat Al Green for disrupting Trump’s speech
The rightwing House Freedom caucus said its lawmakers will propose censuring Democratic congressman Al Green for heckling Donald Trump during his joint speech to Congress last night.
The Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, ordered Green removed from the chamber for shouting at the president: “He has no mandate.” Here’s a look back at that:
Samuel Alito wrote for the four conservative justices who dissented from the court’s order upholding a judge’s demand that USAid resume payments to its foreign aid partners.
He made a number of arguments against the decision, including that it was hasty and overbroad. He sums them up in his conclusion:
Today, the Court makes a most unfortunate misstep that rewards an act of judicial hubris and imposes a $2 billion penalty on American taxpayers. The District Court has made plain its frustration with the Government, and respondents raise serious concerns about nonpayment for completed work. But the relief ordered is, quite simply, too extreme a response. A federal court has many tools to address a party’s supposed nonfeasance. Self-aggrandizement of its jurisdiction is not one of them. I would chart a different path than the Court does today, so I must respectfully dissent.
It’s unclear if the supreme court’s order will require USAid to immediately pay money owed to partners that were implementing its foreign aid agenda.
In his majority opinion, the court said the federal judge handling the case should specify what he wants the government to do now, given that his original deadline for USAid to pay out the $1.5b to foreign aid partners has passed:
Given that the deadline in the challenged order has now passed, and in light of the ongoing preliminary injunction proceedings, the District Court should clarify what obligations the Government must fulfill to ensure compliance with the temporary restraining order, with due regard for the feasibility of any compliance timelines.
Supreme court upholds order requiring USAid to pay foreign aid groups
The supreme court has upheld a federal judge’s order that USAid pay $1.5bn to foreign assistance groups, despite Donald Trump’s attempt to dismantle the organization.
The decision saw the three liberal justices join with conservatives John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett in the majority. The four remaining conservatives, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, dissented.
Roberts had earlier stopped a deadline for USAid to disburse the funds while the court considered the matter. Here’s more on that:
As part of his pressure campaign on Canada, Donald Trump has taken to referring to the country’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, as “governor”, and publicly mulled making the vast country America’s 51st state.
At least one of his allies has taken up the inaccurate title for Trudeau, with Senator Markwayne Mullin using it in an interview with CNN yesterday.
“What we would love to do is have Governor Trudeau work with us on the northern border, and help solve that issue,” the Oklahoma lawmaker said, parroting a common argument from the Trump administration.
Asked if he meant to use that title, Mullin replied: “It was intentional, 100%.”
