Chief Justice John Roberts on Wednesday paused a court-imposed midnight deadline that would have required the Trump administration to release $2 billion in frozen foreign aid, a goal that the government has claimed it is unable to meet. The emergency appeal marks the first time President Donald Trump's efforts to drastically remake the federal government – including with deep cuts across government agencies – have reached the nation's highest court. The case appears likely to put the justices on a collision course with Trump's sweeping efforts to consolidate power within the executive branch. Roberts' order does not resolve the underlying questions raised by the case. Rather, it imposed what's known as an "administrative stay" to give the court a few days to review written arguments in the case. Roberts is the justice designated to handle emergency cases from the federal appeals court in Washington, DC. The chief justice called for the groups that sued the administration to respond by Friday. The Trump administration raced to the Supreme Court late Wednesday just hours before the midnight deadline and urged the justices to step in immediately – the second time Trump has rushed to the high court since taking office last month. Another pending Trump-related case deals with the president's firing of the leadership at the Office of Special Counsel. At issue in the latest appeal is billions of dollars in foreign aid from the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development that Trump froze in January as he sought to clamp down federal spending and bring it more in line with his policy positions. US District Judge Amir Ali, nominated by President Joe Biden, imposed a temporary order requiring that money to flow while he considered the case. After the plaintiffs asserted the Trump administration had not adequately restored the funding, Ali responded by ordering payment by Wednesday at 11:59 p.m. ET of all foreign aid that had been completed by the time of his order. The Trump administration has told courts that it would take "multiple weeks" to meet the judge's request. "The district court's imminent and arbitrary deadline makes full compliance impossible," acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris, the administration's top appellate attorney, told the Supreme Court on Wednesday. In one notable section of the appeal, the administration told the high court that it "takes seriously its constitutional duty to comply with the orders" of federal courts. That language was clearly a recognition of the blowback Trump and his allies have received in recent weeks as they have flirted with the notion of defying court orders they disagree with, or attempting to impeach the judges who issue them. "The government," Harris wrote, "is undertaking substantial efforts to review payment requests and release payments." The groups that sued have balked at those explanations, suggesting that a small number of political appointees within the administration "are refusing to authorize essentially any payments." It's possible that the government may run into a major problem when the court begins to review the request more thoroughly: In explaining its reasoning for rejecting the administration's bid to halt the deadline, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit said that the enforcement order at issue was not one that could be appealed in the first place. "Appellants cite no case that has held that such a later issued supporting order is appealable," the court said in its unanimous ruling. Steve Vladeck, CNN Supreme Court analyst and professor at Georgetown University Law Center, said Roberts' move isn't an indication of how the court will treat Trump and the foreign aid freeze overall. "It's really just a play for time – in this case, perhaps as little as two days – to give the justices time to sort out whether or not they should pause Judge Ali's ruling or force the government to turn the challenged foreign aid funding back on while the litigation challenging its suspension continues," Vladeck said. — CNN
