> In his dissent, Alito wrote that because of the Supreme Court's order, the government must pay the $2 billion at issue "not because the law requires it, but simply because a district judge so ordered."<p>Justice Alito is straight up lying here. The contractors (AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition and the Global Health Council) already performed work for USAID in line with the Foreign Assistance Act (the legislative act that created USAID), so the federal government owes the contractors money [1]. Elon Musk, Trump, and DOGE froze USAID payments and are blocking USAID from fulfilling its end of the contracts, which is illegal impoundment (after Nixon's presidency) [2]. The four dissenting Justices in this case are directly contradicting the Biden v. Nebraska student loan debt ruling that they all signed onto (no blanket student loan debt relief without an appropriate act of Congress, which the HEROES Act was not) [1][3].<p>The district judge in this case was enforcing Congress's power of the purse, a check that the legislative branch has on the executive branch. Alito and the other dissenting Justices are pretending that the judge is only relying on the judicial branch's check of interpretation on the executive branch.<p>[1] Alito "Stunned" By Court Exercising Judicial Power He Championed & Expanded Just Months Ago <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/06/alito-stunned-by-court-exercising-judicial-power-he-championed-expanded-just-months-ago/" rel="nofollow">https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/06/alito-stunned-by-court-e...</a><p>[2] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impoundment_of_appropriated_funds" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impoundment_of_appropriated_fu...</a><p>[3] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biden_v._Nebraska" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biden_v._Nebraska</a>