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Court Decision Reinforces Constitutional Principles, But Does Not Relieve Humanitarian Crisis

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Tonight, a federal district court in Washington, DC, granted in part and denied in part a motion for a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit brought by AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC) and Journalism Development Network (JDN). The motion asked the court to allow humanitarian work to continue while the lawsuit challenging the administration’s foreign-assistance freeze moves forward. The two groups are represented in the case by Public Citizen Litigation Group.

The court ordered that the administration spend money appropriated by Congress for foreign assistance but declined to order restoration of foreign assistance grants that had been terminated en masse.

Lauren Bateman, an attorney with Public Citizen Litigation Group and lead counsel on this case, issued the following statement in response:

“Today’s decision affirms a basic principle of our Constitution: the president is not a king.

“But we are painfully aware that, without unwinding the mass termination of foreign assistance awards, winning on the constitutional issues does not avert the humanitarian disaster caused by the Trump Administration’s freeze on foreign assistance. And it does not undo the damage that the freeze has already inflicted on millions of vulnerable people across the world. Deaths will continue to mount.

“While the courts have an important role to play in standing up for the rule of law, Americans need more than just the courts. We need Congress, which has always supported foreign aid on a bipartisan basis, to assert itself.”