A temporary restraining order — a TRO — is a short-term court freeze. It is not a final judgment. It is not a Supreme Court holding. On February 13, 2025, Judge Amir H. Ali signed one in two related cases: AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition v. United States Department of State, No. 25-cv-00400 (AHA), and Global Health Council v. Trump, No. 25-cv-00402 (AHA). The signed PDF is on RECAP as Global Health ECF 21, filed February 13, 2025. Westlaw citation printed on later orders: 2025 WL 485324. Later compiled as 766 F. Supp. 3d 74.
Executive Order 14169, “Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid,” January 20, 2025, 90 Fed. Reg. 8619, directed an immediate pause in United States foreign development assistance and told the Office of Management and Budget to enforce the pause through its apportionment authority. Section 3(a). Ali’s order recites that order and the later agency stop-work and termination actions.
He granted the motions in part, “on narrower terms than Plaintiffs originally and subsequently requested.” He did not enjoin the President. He did not enjoin the executive order in its entirety. He temporarily enjoined Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Peter Marocco, Russell Vought, the State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and OMB from enforcing or giving effect to specified sections of a January 24 State memorandum and “any other directives that implement Sections 3(a) and 3(c)” of EO 14169, including by “suspending, pausing, or otherwise preventing the obligation or disbursement of appropriated foreign-assistance funds” for awards in existence as of January 19, 2025, or giving effect to terminations, suspensions, or stop-work orders on those awards.
The opinion’s merits paragraph, verified on the PDF: “at least to date, Defendants have not offered any explanation for why a blanket suspension of all congressionally appropriated foreign aid, which set off a shockwave and upended reliance interests for thousands of agreements with businesses, nonprofits, and organizations around the country, was a rational precursor to reviewing programs.” He also wrote that nothing in the order prohibits enforcing the terms of particular contracts or grants. Status report due February 18, 2025.
House Resolution 174 later named that temporary restraining order against the “pausing” of funds in Executive Order 14169. Naming it is an allegation in a House filing. It is not a House vote.