A federal appeals court ruled in favor of President Trump, allowing his administration to continue freezing or terminating billions of dollars allocated for foreign aid. The 2-to-1 decision stated that plaintiffs, a group of international aid organizations, lacked the legal standing to sue. The funding freeze began on Trump's first day in office and targets nearly $4 billion for global health programs and over $6 billion for HIV and AIDS initiatives. The ruling reversed a preliminary injunction from a lower court but did not address the constitutional implications of the funding terminations.
The court ruled that the administration can continue to freeze or terminate billions of dollars that Congress had earmarked for foreign aid spending. In a 2-to-1 vote, a panel of judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said the plaintiffs in the case...did not have the legal standing to bring a lawsuit.
President Trump has called foreign aid spending on programs that tackle disease outbreaks and poverty overseas "wasteful." The administration dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development which oversaw and managed about $30 billion annually in global health and development programs.
Wednesday's ruling reversed the lower court's preliminary injunction, but the panel of judges did not rule on whether the terminations of funds appropriated by Congress were constitutional.
Judge Florence Pan, who was appointed by Joe Biden, wrote the dissenting opinion, stating that "The court's holding that the grantees have no constitutional cause of action is as startling as it is erroneous."
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