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Hi, I'm Dahlia Lithwick and this is

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a special edition of Amicus, Slates

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podcast about the courts and the

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law and the U.S. Supreme Court.

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We are bringing you this extra

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episode with news of the first

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real clash between Donald Trump's Doge

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agenda and the highest court in

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the land on Wednesday morning in

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a brief order. The Supreme Court

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rejected an emergency application from the

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Trump administration to junk a lower

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court order forcing the State Department

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to immediately pay out $2

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billion owed to contractors for

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foreign aid work they had

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already completed. The decision was,

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slightly alarmingly, five to four

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with Chief Justice John Roberts

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and Amy Coney Barrett joining

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the court's liberal wing to

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side with the two challengers

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to the sudden freeze of

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foreign aid spending. Joining me

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to chew over both the

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brief order and the Hale

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fellow well-met greeting between Donald

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Trump and quote his chief

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justice at Tuesday night's joint

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session of Congress is slate's

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very own Mark Joseph Stern.

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Hi Mark. Hi Dahlia. I'm

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just in a note. I'm in

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a hotel room in Arizona and

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there's a baby screaming in the

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room next door. I would ordinarily

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not flag this except if you

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hear that sound, that's actually all

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of us. I think she speaks

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for us all. Especially Sam

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Alito today, who's never whined

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more like a baby than

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in this dissent. That baby

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is channeling Sam Alito. Before

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we get to this, I

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think very consequential first loss

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for Donald Trump, I think

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we need to start with

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the audio of Donald Trump

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after his remarks, personally thanking

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the Chief Justice on

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Tuesday evening. Thank you

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again. Thank you again. Don't forget.

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And that's the sound of President

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Trump patting the Chief Justice on

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his shoulder, thanking him, and assuring

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him he will not forget. So

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Mark, we have this awkward moment.

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It's horrifying. I think Elena Kagan's

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face, much like the baby in

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the hotel room next door, speaks

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for us all. They waited to

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release this... blockbuster order until after

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Donald Trump gave his speech? Yeah?

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I absolutely think so. I think

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even though Alito clearly took some

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time to write this furious dissent

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and he loves to drag out

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the drama by writing long dissents,

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I think it's pretty clear that

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this should have been ready by

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Tuesday. I mean, the court has

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been preparing it since at least

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Friday. And I think, you know,

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for optic's purposes, the majority didn't

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want to put it out right

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before. Some of them went... to

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sit in front of Trump at

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his address before Congress and so

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they waited and the optics are

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in some ways even weirder now

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because you had Donald Trump basically

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saying hey thanks chief for all

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you did to make me president

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again I mean that's certainly how

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I interpret his comment And then

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the chief turns around and signs

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on to, you know, this extraordinary

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order that will require the Trump

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administration to pay out $2 billion

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that it doesn't want to. That

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is a sick burn as far

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as I'm concerned. And I think

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that the chief is either laughing

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quietly to himself in his chambers

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or like shivering in a corner

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worried that Trump is going to

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turn on him and use that

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immunity decision to the fullest of

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his powers against the man who

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wrote it. irony of Donald Trump

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saying to the chief, I won't

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forget it. And the chief being

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like, it's forgotten. Move on. So

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listen, this order is a big

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deal early on Wednesday morning. As

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you say, we get this very

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short order in a pair of

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cases. vaccine advocacy coalition v. Department

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of State and Global Health Council

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v. Trump. The plaintiffs are a

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group of international non-profits, businesses, and

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other groups that provide public health

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services, hunger relief investigations, other foreign

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assistance all around the globe, and

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they had challenged this Trump administration

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freeze of virtually all foreign aid

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funding that had already been appropriated

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by Congress, including, and we've talked

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about this on the show mark,

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money for programs that people literally

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relied on around the world in

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order to survive. The case was

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assigned to Judge Amir Ali, a

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Biden appointee, he ruled for the

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plaintiffs on February 13th, he ordered

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the government to resume the funding,

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and since mid-February we've been witnessing

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the Trump administration dodging and weaving

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around that order to reinstate payments.

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We've talked about this before on

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the show, Mark, and sort of

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outer limits of what Judge Ali

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could do, and his very openly

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expressed frustration with how the case was

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playing out. Yeah, I mean, just to

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recap, Judge Ali ordered the government

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to resume these payments. The government

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refused. It claimed that it had

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gone over all of the relevant

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contracts and discovered magical language that

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allowed them to cancel them willy-nilly

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and even refused to pay for

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services. rendered. The plaintiffs came in

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and asked for Judge Alito holds

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the Trump administration in contempt of

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court. Judge Alito did not go

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that far, but he issued then

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like a series of increasingly frustrated

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orders saying, hey, I issued my

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decision, you're sort of supposed to abide by

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it. It finally reached a boiling point that

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led the Trump administration to run to the

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higher courts and say, we don't want to

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do this, we don't want to pay, this

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is outrageous, how dare Judge Ali, hold our

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feet to the fire and make us actual...

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spend the money Congress appropriated. And so I

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think it was clear that this was not

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going to get resolved in Judge Lee's courtroom.

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The Supreme Court was going to have to

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stop. in one way or another. And

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of course, whenever you're relying on

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this Supreme Court to force the

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Trump administration to follow the law,

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you really got to have your

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fingers crossed. That is a tricky

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bet to place. And I think

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that Judge Elise stood strong, knowing

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he was in the right, that

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he had the law and the

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facts on his side, and that

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turned out to be the correct

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bet. It's pretty disturbing that it

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only paid off by, you know,

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a single vote, as we'll discuss.

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But this was one of the

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most brazen acts of intransigence, if

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not outright defiance, government in the

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face of a core order that

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we have seen in a very

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long time. Slade Plus members can

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access my conversation with Mark in

6:46

full right now. You can subscribe

6:49

to Slate Plus directly from the

6:51

Amicus Show page on Apple Podcasts

6:53

and Spotify or visit slate.com/Amicus Plus

6:55

to get access wherever you listen.

6:57

We'll be back with your regularly

6:59

scheduled Amicus episode on Saturday morning.

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Until then, take good care and

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hang on in there.