As the old saying goes, You can’t win them all. But this one looked like a fairly easy win, especially after the extraordinary intervention of Chief Justice John Roberts last week. Today’s surprising 5-4 setback might encourage more legal challenges to DOGE cuts, at least in terms of intermediary interference from the federal judiciary.
The Supreme Court rebuffed the appeal on the deadline for the $2 billion in USAID funds that the Trump administration froze, but didn’t order Donald Trump to pay it either. Instead, the court used a hypertechnicality to kick the whole mess back to Judge Amir Ali, with a warning to be more specific about what actually has to be paid and how much time it will take:
A sharply divided Supreme Court on Wednesday narrowly ruled that the Trump administration must comply with a district court order and pay out nearly $2 billion in…
