The court, in its first significant ruling on a legal challenge to the Trump Administration, voted 5-4 to uphold a lower court order requiring that payments be made on aid contracts that have already been completed. The justices said the federal judge who ordered the resumption of payments for contracts with the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and State Department, “should clarify what obligations the Government must fulfil”.

Conservatives John Roberts, the chief justice, and Amy Coney Barrett, a Trump appointee, voted with the three liberal justices on the nine-member Supreme Court. Judge Samuel Alito wrote a dissent that was joined by the three other conservative justices. “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] two billion taxpayer dollars?” Alito wrote.

“The answer to that question should be an emphatic, ‘No,’ but a majority of this court apparently thinks otherwise. I am stunned,” he said. District Judge Amir Ali, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, issued a temporary restraining order last month prohibiting the Trump Administration from “suspending, pausing, or otherwise preventing” foreign assistance funds.