The Supreme Court has given President Donald Trump the go-ahead to unilaterally withhold $4 billion in foreign aid previously appropriated by Congress, a crucial milestone in an intense legal battle over the constitutional power of the purse.
The high court’s ruling Friday, issued over the dissent of the three liberal justices, signals Trump has the upper hand in that battle. The decision effectively blessed Trump’s “pocket rescission” — a controversial maneuver in which the president withheld the funds toward the end of the fiscal year so that the money could not be spent even if Congress did not approve the rescission.
That maneuver was designed to circumvent the usual process for a rescission of funds: a special request from the president followed by a 45-day period in which Congress must agree to the request for it to become effective.
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The ruling comes as Congress hurtles toward a Sept. 30 government shutdown, and the court’s decision could make bipartisan negotiations an even taller order. Democrats wary of cutting deals with GOP leaders must now face the more concrete prospect that Trump could simply withhold funds that Congress agrees to spend.
The ruling — issued in a short, unsigned order on the court’s emergency docket — is not a final decision on the broader question of the president’s power to unilaterally “impound” congressionally appropriated funding. The majority wrote that it was not making a “final determination on the merits” but that the ruling “reflects our preliminary view.” The majority also suggested that the ruling was partially based on the fact that the funds in question were connected to Trump’s “conduct of foreign affairs,” an area where presidents are understood to have wide latitude.
