A preliminary injunction is a longer freeze than a temporary restraining order. It is still not a final judgment. On September 3, 2025, Ali signed a 43-page memorandum opinion and order in the same two cases. Global Health ECF 139. RECAP PDF verified. Caption: both AIDS Vaccine 25-cv-00400 and Global Health 25-cv-00402. Signed “AMIR H. ALI / United States District Judge / Date: September 3, 2025.”
The opinion states that defendants had represented “approximately $11.5 billion in appropriated funds” at issue among expiring 2024 appropriations, and that a later presidential special message proposed to rescind about $4 billion. The Supreme Court’s September 26 stay described this district-court order as “directing the Executive to obligate roughly $10.5 billion of appropriated aid funding set to expire on September 30.” Both numbers are printed. They are not collapsed.
On the merits paragraph, verified: defendants’ reasons for not developing an argument “may be many, including that, even having changed their position, there is not a plausible interpretation of the statutes that would justify the billions of dollars they plan to withhold.” He concluded the decision not to spend was contrary to law under the Administrative Procedure Act. That is a preliminary likelihood-of-success finding. It is not a damages judgment.
The D.C. Circuit’s later treatment and the Supreme Court’s stay are separate documents. Epoch Times and the New York Post reported the September 3 order. Reporting is labeled reporting.