DC court lets USAID suit advance, but shuts down key claim

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit allowed the lawsuit against the Trump administration, freezing billions of dollars in foreign aid from USAID to continue, and declined to review the separation of powers claim by the plaintiffs.

Several nonprofits that receive foreign aid funding challenged President Donald Trump's decision to freeze it. The court's decision on Thursday declined to review the nonprofits' claim that the cuts violated the separation of powers because Congress approved the funding, CNN reported. However, their lawsuit was allowed to continue.

Earlier this month, a three-judge panel of the appeals court sided with Trump, blocking the groups from suing. On Thursday, the panel handed down an amended decision, allowing the groups to continue their lawsuit on a limited basis. The full appellate court, which the groups had asked to rehear their case, then declined to review the challenge.

The lawsuit now returns to U.S. District Judge Amir Ali, a Biden appointee, who previously blocked the Trump administration's funding freeze. This will likely make moot an emergency appeal filed by the administration this week to the Supreme Court.

In a dissent to the full appeals court's ruling, U.S. Circuit Judge Florence Pan, a Biden appointee, wrote that it was a mistake not to review the three-judge panel's decision because it blocked an important avenue that the nonprofits tried to use to challenge Trump.

Pan also acknowledged that the panel's revised opinion allowed for a “pathway for the grantees in this case to pursue relief,” which she said might be “the most efficient way for the grantees to seek access to the $15 billion of appropriated funds.”