Supreme Court's Roberts pauses order for Trump admin to release $1.9B in foreign aid funding

The US Supreme Court has temporarily paused a lower court's order that would have required the Trump administration to restart $1.9 billion in foreign aid payments by midnight. Chief Justice John Roberts granted a stay and requested aid groups that sued the administration to respond by 12 noon Friday ET. This is the first case the Supreme Court has intervened in since the Trump administration moved to overhaul the federal government and make drastic budget cuts. A lower court had ordered the administration to resume payments for contracts and grants related to foreign aid work contracted by the State Department and USAID by 11:59pm Wednesday. The administration had asked the justices to vacate the midnight deadline, calling it an "arbitrary timeline." Justice Department lawyers argued that the ordered payments "cannot be accomplished in the time allotted by the" district court. The Supreme Court's intervention comes after the high court declined to immediately intervene in a lower court decision to block the administration from firing Hampton Dellinger, the head of independent watchdog agency the Office of Special Counsel. The administration is seeking to make drastic budget cuts and overhaul the federal government. The Supreme Court's decision is seen as a significant move, as courts are becoming the final guardrail against the Trump administration's actions. The aid groups that sued the administration will respond to the Supreme Court's request by Friday.