Bear with me, folks — this is breaking first thing in the morning following President Donald Trump's rousing joint address to Congress Tuesday night (and the irony of some of the justices sitting there for the speech and then issuing this ruling first thing the next AM isn't lost on me).

The Supreme Court has issued a ruling on the Trump administration's application to vacate the District Court's ruling in the USAID funding case and stay the proceedings — it has denied the application.

BREAKING: The Supreme Court has *upheld* a lower court's order forcing USAID/State to immediately pay ~$2 billion owed to contractors for work they've alreayd performed.

Alito/Thomas/Gorsuch/Kavanaugh dissent, https://t.co/k86ttz6Wdt pic.twitter.com/3eGu93aIL3

— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) March 5, 2025

Judge's Modification to USAID Order Fits a Pattern That Is Worth Watching

BREAKING: SCOTUS Halts Court Order Forcing Trump Admin to Pay $2 Billion in Foreign Aid

It's important to note: This is a procedural ruling, not a merits ruling. Five justices, including Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Coney Barrett, opted to deny the application. The majority's decision is quite brief and largely just sets out the procedural posture, so I'm excerpting it here in its entirety:

On February 13, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia entered a temporary restraining order enjoining the Government from enforcing directives pausing disbursements of foreign development assistance funds. The present application does not challenge the Government’s obligation to follow that order. On February 25, the District Court ordered the Government to issue payments for a portion of the paused disbursements—those owed for work already completed before the issuance of the District Court’s temporary restraining order—by 11:59 p.m. on February 26. Several hours before that deadline, the Government filed this application to vacate the District Court’s February 25 order and requested an immediate administrative stay. THE CHIEF JUSTICE entered an administrative stay shortly before the 11:59 p.m. deadline and subsequently referred the application to the Court. The application is denied. 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. The order heretofore entered by THE CHIEF JUSTICE is vacated.

The TLDR version of that is that after Judge Ali ordered the administration to disburse $2 billion in funding by a certain deadline, SCOTUS temporarily paused that order, but now, since the deadline is past (and moot), rather than vacate it altogether, they're lifting the pause and sending things back to the district court to sort out further. 

The dissent, authored by Justice Alito and joined by Justices Thomas, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh, is lengthier. In a nutshell, their point is this: 

Does a single district-court judge who likely lacks jurisdiction have the unchecked power to compel the Government of the United States to pay out (and probably lose forever) 2 billion taxpayer dollars? The answer to that question should be an emphatic “No,” but a majority of this court apparently thinks otherwise. I am stunned. 

This isn't the end of the story on this case — not by a long shot. We'll continue to follow it and bring you updates as they emerge.