US President Donald Trump’s administration has asked the Supreme Court to let it withhold more than $4bn (£3bn) in foreign aid.
The administration is seeking an emergency order as it tries to claw back funds for foreign assistance programmes that have already been allocated by Congress.
A lower court last week said the Trump administration had a statutory obligation to spend the money, and an appeals court declined last Friday to freeze that ruling.
The president attempted to use a rarely used legislative tool to withdraw the funds. Since returning to the White House, Trump has cancelled billions of dollars in foreign aid that he says does not align with his objectives.
Solicitor General D John Sauer said in Monday’s filing that the lower court’s injunction “raises a grave and urgent threat to the separation of powers”.
“The President can hardly speak with one voice in foreign affairs or in dealings with Congress when the district court is forcing the Executive Branch to advocate against its own objectives,” Sauer wrote.
The Supreme Court could rule at any time.
Last week, Judge Amir Ali ruled the US government had to spend the allocated money unless Congress voted to approve the Trump administration’s request.
On 28 August, Trump notified the House of Representatives that the administration would not spend billions in foreign aid allocated by Congress earlier this year.
Those funds include some $3bn for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), as well as money for the state department, international peacekeeping and for democracy-promotion in other countries.
Trump, a Republican, has largely dismantled USAID, the main foreign aid agency, because he said its spending was wasteful.
To revoke the foreign aid money, he said he was using a so-called pocket recission through the Impoundment Control Act, which gives a US president the power to request the cancellation of funds approved by Congress.
Such notice so late in the fiscal year means the money may go unspent because Congress does not have enough time to act on the request.
A group of nonprofits and businesses that receive money for foreign assistance projects filed a legal challenge to the move.
It is reported to be the first time in nearly half a century that the president has moved to unilaterally claw back funding in this way.
The Trump administration has already said it plans to spend another $6.5bn in funds appropriated for foreign aid, following lawsuits from aid groups.
This is not the first time the tussle over foreign aid funding has ended up at the Supreme Court.
In March, the justices rejected a bid from the president to keep $2bn in foreign aid frozen while the case moved forward. It was a 5-4 ruling.
