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Attorneys for the Trump administration filed an emergency request with the Supreme Court late Tuesday night, asking the justices to let it block billions in foreign aid spending that Congress had already authorized. It’s the latest turn in the case on U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) spending, sending the issue back to the Supreme Court for the second time in six months.

The emergency request, from U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer, would allow the government to suspend $12 billion in aid set to be spent by USAID before the fiscal year ends on September 30. On his first day back in the White House in January, Trump signed an executive order that would bar the federal government from nearly all foreign aid disbursements, part of a larger effort he had been making to crack down on what he described as “waste, fraud, and abuse” in overseas spending.

The order was quickly challenged in court, and in February, U.S. District Judge Amir Ali in Washington, D.C, put the brakes on the administration’s efforts. Ali’s ruling required the Trump administration to continue the flow of money for projects that Congress had already agreed to. Ali also wrote an order requiring the Trump administration to resume payments on billions of dollars of USAID grants.

Appeals Court Decision

The Trump administration appealed that decision. In a 2-1 ruling earlier this month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit vacated Ali’s injunction. In a brief opinion, Judge Karen L. Henderson, an appointee of George H.W. Bush, wrote that the plaintiffs in the case — groups that provide foreign aid who are seeking to restore grant payments that were suspended — did not have enough legal standing to sue the administration in the first place. Henderson argued the groups lacked a cause of action under a legal doctrine known as impoundment.

While the appeals court decision was a major victory for Trump, that court has not yet formally issued its mandate to enforce its decision. As a result, the money that would need to be dispersed before the September 30 deadline — and the payment schedule set by Ali — is still technically in place. The Trump administration is now in a race to try to avoid an order compelling it to disburse the full $12 billion in foreign aid.

Emergency Request at Supreme Court

Sauer filed the emergency request at the Supreme Court on Tuesday evening, hours before the Sept. 30 deadline when the money would need to be spent, asking for an injunction to prevent the administration from being compelled to pay out. “Unless this Court intervenes,” Sauer wrote in the filing, “petitioner will have to rapidly obligate some $12 billion in foreign-aid funds before they expire on September 30.”

The plaintiffs in the case — a collection of foreign aid groups whose projects are dependent on the USAID funding — have a very different take on the facts. They argue that the president should not be able to unilaterally freeze spending that Congress has already approved. The main points of law they turn to are a law known as the Impoundment Control Act (ICA) from the 1970s, which was designed to curb executive overreach in federal spending, as well as the Administrative Procedure Act.

A Wider Impasse

The ongoing battle has broader implications for the power of the executive branch and the presidency’s ability to cancel or otherwise delay congressionally approved spending. The case is a reprise of a previous Supreme Court case on the same issue that was settled in a narrow 5-4 ruling in the spring. If the plaintiffs lose, it would set a new, higher bar for the executive to assert its control over congressionally approved spending.

The case is the latest high-stakes bid by the Trump administration to overhaul how the U.S. government spends money. For the foreign aid organizations in question, the legal battle has the potential to shut off their projects overseas as Trump tries to freeze their cash flow. The Supreme Court’s handling of the emergency appeal could determine the fate of $12 billion in foreign aid money, with the Trump administration hoping to use it to fund its priorities instead.