Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily let President Donald Trump keep freezing foreign-aid payments while the U.S. Supreme Court weighs whether to lift an order that would require disbursement of as much as $2 billion.

Acting shortly after Trump filed an emergency request, Roberts issued an administrative stay pausing a judge’s order that would have required payments to be made by 11:59 p.m. Washington time Wednesday night. Roberts’ order asked humanitarian groups challenging the freeze to respond by Friday at noon.

U.S. District Judge Amir Ali said Tuesday the administration had failed to comply with his earlier order to lift a freeze on foreign assistance through U.S. Agency for International Development.

Humanitarian groups say the freeze is having a devastating effect, upending hundreds of projects, forcing USAID partner groups to lay off or furlough thousands of U.S. workers and putting people who depend on the assistance at risk of disease and death. The groups say the money includes payment for work already completed.

The Trump administration says Ali overstepped his authority and imposed an impossible-to-meet deadline in his latest order.

“This new order requiring payment of enormous sums of foreign-assistance money in less than 36 hours intrudes on the prerogatives of the executive branch,” acting U.S. Solicitor General Sarah Harris said in a Wednesday night filing.

Roberts is the justice assigned to handle emergency matters involving courts in the nation’s capital.

The case is the second Trump-related clash to reach the Supreme Court since he took office Jan. 20 and began aggressively trying to remake the federal government. The court so far has held off acting on Trump’s bid to immediately fire the head of a federal whistleblower office.

The case is U.S. Department of State v. AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, 24A831.

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