Politics & Government
Rob Romano-Who Controls Foreign Policy? President Or District Courts?
U.S. Supreme Court Renewed President Trump's Foreign Aid Freeze Pending Hearing. Constitutional Issues on Range of Taxpayer Issues Examined
From the Daily Torch to this eclectic "Reality Check" series by this writer for MHProNews this
Patch. Additional information about the evolution of events in D.C. related to Trump 2.0 (T2) plus other topics follow in Part II.
Part I
Find out what's happening in Lakelandfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Supreme Court Renews Trump’s Foreign Aid Freeze Pending Hearing. Who Controls Foreign Policy? The President Or District Courts?
Find out what's happening in Lakelandfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Feb. 26 temporarily reinstituted President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 freeze of foreign aid pending a hearing of the case by the Supreme Court, lifting a U.S. District Court order that the payments continue in spite of Trump’s freeze.
At issue are $2 billion of payments that were to be sent out but never were. The plaintiffs, the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition and other organizations, claim that the payments were for services already rendered.
Under the Jan. 20 Trump executive order, departments and agencies were to stop all “new obligations and disbursements”: “All department and agency heads with responsibility for United States foreign development assistance programs shall immediately pause new obligations and disbursements of development assistance funds to foreign countries and implementing non-governmental organizations, international organizations, and contractors pending reviews of such programs for programmatic efficiency and consistency with United States foreign policy, to be conducted within 90 days of this order.”
The review of foreign aid was ongoing at the time of the U.S. District Judge Ali Amir for the District of Columbia’s Feb. 13 ruling ordering that the payments resume.
In filing to the Supreme Court, Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris noted that the district court was essentially ordering the State Department to write a blank check without any chance to review any of the payments in question: “The order does not limit its abrupt deadline to respondents’ own invoices or letters of credit, instead apparently compelling the government to pay requests from any organization that has asked for such funds. Those requests are not even in the record, nor are the underlying instruments. The timing of the order does not allow the government to conduct payment-integrity review to ensure that payments are made only for obligations that are legitimate or supported by necessary documentation—much less deny improper payments. The timing of the order does not even let the government ascertain whether the sums are actually due or owing under the terms of the instruments.”
Harris added, “The timing of the order is particularly difficult because, based on the district court’s other orders, the government has been expediting review of thousands of foreign-aid grants and contracts to decide which contracts are in the interests of the United States to terminate and which should be retained.”
In other words, the district court’s ruling would just obligate the State Department to pay whoever asks for money, regardless if it was a qualified or legal expense, or if it was properly vetted.
Harris warned the Supreme Court that the district court’s ruling “effectively allows a single federal district court to supervise the federal government’s contracting decisions regarding foreign aid—an area where the Executive Branch ordinarily has the broadest discretion.”
And here is the key point. Since Jan. 20, former President Joe Biden — whose administration approved the contracts in question — is no longer in office, and President Donald Trump now is. Under Article II, Sec. 1 of the Constitution, “The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.”
And Presidents absolutely set American foreign policy, whether in negotiating new treaties or in terminating old ones—see George Washington’s 1793 Proclamation of Neutrality to obviated the U.S. military treaty with France when it went to war. Other terminated treaties have included the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty among others.
Are we to believe that the President can terminate treaties — which required two-thirds of the Senate to approve — including those that established military alliances, but that he cannot terminate foreign aid to countries who might no longer be considered allies by the President?
There is a separate question about whether the payments were for services already rendered, but as Solicitor General Harris noted that the U.S. has sovereign immunity from such a case as the district court was not even the proper venue, stating that the federal Court of Claims was the proper venue, “the district court lacked any jurisdiction even to issue this order dictating contractual payments by a date certain to remedy purported contractual breaches. The federal government has sovereign immunity from this type of breach-of-contract claim everywhere but the Court of Federal Claims.”
Here, Harris cited 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1346(a)(2), which explicitly states, “the district courts shall not have jurisdiction of any civil action or claim against the United States founded upon any express or implied contract with the United States or for liquidated or unliquidated damages…”
Meaning, the district courts slapping injunctions on spending freezes related to federal contracts are likely overstepping their jurisdiction. If there are any claims, they are to be directed to the U.S. Court of Claims, but even then, those still must be squared with Article II’s vesting clause of executive power in the President, particularly as it relates to national security and foreign policy.
If the President says not to continue a treaty or to send foreign aid, that might be the final word on the subject.
Robert Romano is the Vice President of Public Policy at Americans for Limited Government Foundation.
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Part II - Additional Information with More Patch Commentary plus Other Topics
1) It is difficult to say with certainty what the U.S. Supreme Court may say on this topic raised by Robert Romano via the Daily Torch item posted above. But Romano quite rightly pointed to this: "Under Article II, Sec. 1 of the Constitution, “The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.”" And U.S. foreign policy is, per the Constitution, set by the President of the United States (POTUS).
2) From the White House website is this apt statement. "By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1. Purpose. Article II of the United States Constitution vests the power to conduct foreign policy in the President of the United States. Presidents rely on their Secretaries of State and their subordinate officials to ensure that the United States is served and protected at home and abroad."
3) From that same page on the White House site is this.
"Sec. 2. Policy. All officers or employees charged with implementing the foreign policy of the United States must under Article II do so under the direction and authority of the President. Failure to faithfully implement the President’s policy is grounds for professional discipline, including separation."
4) That is according to "One Voice for America’s Foreign Relations" "EXECUTIVE ORDER" "February 12, 2025."
5) To give district court judges, who are often politically partisan, the power to freeze nationally (or internationally) the work of the president of either party is to undermine the constitution as written. Said differently, there are reasons to think that President Trump will win cases like this one that Romano has thoughtfully explored above in Part I.
6) In our ongoing Reality Check series on this Patch, we are seeing just how far afield our government has drifted over the course of more than a century. Had these vexing matters all occurred at once, there may have been more pushback. But relatively small incremental changes are how Americans were lulled into what is now the apparent loss of many of our God-given and constitutionally protected rights. The revelations from the first 39 days of the Trump 2.0 term of office are often shocking and distrubing.
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https://patch.com/florida/lake...
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7) On MHProNews earlier today, there was a deeper dive into some of these recent topics.
https://www.manufacturedhomepr...
8) On MHLivingNews there was a deeper dive into issues regarding how President and CEO Mark Weiss, J.D., of the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) worked to position the independent producers of HUD Code manufactured homes to benefit from the more business-friendly T2.
https://www.manufacturedhomeli...
While MHProNews/MHLivingNews and MHARR are independent of each other, in some ways the information they each produced pressed the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) to undo what they were to some extent apparently responsible for causing in the way of a problematic handling of the Department of Energy's (DOE) manufactured housing energy rule. By federal law and per the HUD Code, modern manufactured homes are already energy efficient and must perform in a dynamically similar fashion to conventional housing. The Biden-Harris era DOE, despite occasion lip service that praised manufactured homes, arguably stifled manufactured homes, as have federal, state, and local barriers during much of the 21st century. Who said? Among others, HUD researchers.
9) The above are just some of the ways that Biden-Harris (D) made housing less affordable and kept affordable housing - including but not limited to manufactured homes - less accessible than what federal laws actually require. As a result, as the X-post below observed: "The vast majority of Millennials cannot afford [to buy] housing."
https://www.manufacturedhomepr...
10) There will be a special report on early developments of the HUD Secretary E. Scott Turner led organization planned on MHProNews. At some point, we hope to cover that update of making housing more affordable here on this Patch. For that and more in this Reality Check series, stay tuned and check out some other topics, linked below.
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> U-Haul and North American's Moving Research-Top States for In and Out
All 50 states need more affordable housing, but millions are chasing lower costs of living. States with lower housing costs gain residents.
> 'Immigration Industrial Complex Struggling to Keep Their Lights on'
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> HUD Sec Turner-'Corporate Takeover of Housing—A Manufactured Crisis'
> Romano-U.S. Trade War with Mexico and Canada Lasted 1 Day. Trump Won.
> Urge Senate to Work 7 Days a Week Until Trump's Cabinet is Confirmed!
> Big Govt, Big Pharma, Big Food made Americans Overweight and Unhealthy
> Virginia Bishop for ‘Well-Regulated Borders’ Amid VP J.D. Vance Rumble
> Romano-Trump Bans DEI In Federal Govt—States And Corporations Are Next
> How Republicans Should Follow Through on Tough Talk on Immigration
> NPR=87 Registered Democrats in Editorial Positions and No Republicans
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> President Donald J. Trump’s Official 'America First Priorities'
> Rubio Senate Replacement Ashley Moody (FL-R) Gets Key Assignments
> Trump Plan: Make America Safe, Affordable, Restore U.S. Values for All
> NPR=87 Registered Democrats in Editorial Positions and No Republicans
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> Official Manufactured Housing Production from 1995-2023-Why it Matters
> Anna Paulina Luna (FL-R) and Barry Loudermilk (GA-R) MERIT Act Insight
> Executive Orders on Investigating Biden Censorship & Weaponization
> Floridian Dr István Dobozi Strikes at Trump Again in Magyar Article (Another critical analysis - fact check).
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> Why do Liars Lie? Why do those Engaged in Paltering and Spin Palter?
> Controversy-Manufactured Housing Institute-Lesli Gooch-Mark Bowersox
> ‘Mobile Home Values Rising Faster Than Single-Family’ House-Wow Fact$
> Realtor-What Is a Manufactured Home? The Next Step Beyond Mobile Homes
> Orlando RE Agent Smith-Younger Adults Will Need $8500 Monthly for Rent
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> Rob Romano-Time To Declassify Everything, Or Another RussiaGate Ahead
> Contemporary Tips from Legend Paul Harvey-Surprising Rest of the Story
> Alert: Is Affordable Housing Linked Scandal at Champion Homes Brewing?
> Report: Biden-Harris Federal Agencies Spent Millions Torturing Cats
> Lesli Gooch Ph.D.-Award, Coverup, Headfake, Scandal? Rest of the Story (Manufactured Housing Institute linked)
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> ALG Unpacks Trump Pitch to Cut Drug Costs by Cutting PBM Middleman
> Is there Evidence that God Exists? Evolution vs. Intelligent Design
> Democratic Voters-Closer Look at Biden’s Acts Before Biden-Harris Exit
> Christian Leaders-Signs of 4th 'Great Awakening' Millions go to Jesus
> Attorney John Morgan - Democrat Megadonor on Kamala Harris Campaign
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> USA Today - David Plouffe and Dem Advisers on Kamala Harris Revelation
> Majority OK Trump Transition-Mass Deportations-Tariffs- Is it Hopeful?
> Niskanen Center Praises Manufactured Home ‘Cost Savings’ and ‘Quality’
> Alice Carter-The Northern Forum-Deporting Immigrants & Housing Crisis
> Cartoons-Kamala Day 1, DOGE the Swamp, Brainwashing, & Out In the Cold
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> The Creepy Line-Peter Schweizer-Dr. Jordan Peterson-Dr. Robert Epstein
> Secret State Miniseries - Fictional TV Series Shed Light on Reality
> Trump Transition Team Asked to Prioritize Affordable Housing Issues
> Top 10 States for Homelessness & Top Cities for Crime=Shocking Lessons
> WashPost-American Dream Fades But Assoc CEO Mark Weiss Shows Solution
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> Blankley-Goodbye American Dream? Only 10% Polled Can Buy a House; But
> Frank Rolfe-Special Interests ‘Don’t Want to Solve Affordable Housing'
> TARK-‘I’m a Teen and Know the Solution to Affordable Housing Crisis’
---> Renting? Rent too High? Odds Are DOJ Suit vs RealPage Matters to You
> New-Certified “Half Price Homes” - Affordable Housing Solution Redux
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> Solution: “Would-Be Homebuyers Need 80% More Income Than 4 Years Ago”
L. A. “Tony” Kovach is a publisher who has earned multiple awards in history. He and his family live in a manufactured home on private property in Winter Haven, FL. He is the co-founder of Manufactured Home Living News.com (MHLivingNews.com) and Manufactured Home Pro News.com (MHProNews.com), trade publications serving segments of the manufactured home industry. Having worked in several segments of the manufactured home industry for over 3 decades, Kovach is a widely acknowledged and often praised expert on manufactured housing. ###
