The DC Circuit Court of Appeals handed the Trump administration another major victory on Wednesday after it lifted a district courtâs preliminary injunction prohibiting the government from cutting foreign aid for fiscal year 2024.
The ruling comes after several entities, including the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, Journalism Development Network, Inc., and others,s filed a lawsuit challenging the White Houseâs cutting of foreign aid. Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson wrote the majority opinion holding that the plaintiffs did not have a valid legal basis for suing the administration over this matter.
The D.C. Circuit just handed the Trump Administration another victory in tossing aside the injunction requiring the State Department to make foreign aid payments. It is only the latest district court to be overruled on these injunctions as invasive of Article II authority.
â Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) August 13, 2025
Henderson explained that the plaintiffs could not base their case purely on constitutional âseparation of powersâ arguments when their complaints were centered on whether the Trump administration violated spending laws. She argued that they could not use the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) because the Impoundment Control Act already mandates that only the Comptroller General can file a lawsuit under the legislation.
This legal battle will be one to watch closely amid the debate over foreign spending. The decision to do away with USAID rankled more than a few feathers among members of the chattering class â even after it was revealed that much of the spending was allocated for useless and ridiculous initiatives.