A sweeping executive order halting U.S. foreign assistance funding set off months of legal wrangling, leaving life-saving programs in limbo, communities destabilized, and a warning that the human toll could last for years.
By Bunmi Yekini
When the U.S. government abruptly froze all foreign aid funding on January 20, 2025, it wasn’t just a political maneuver, it was a lifeline suddenly cut.
In Nairobi, HIV prevention advocates scrambled to shut down a program that had taken years to build. In West Africa, journalists and policymakers lost a key source of training and resources. In Washington, nonprofits watched contracts vanish overnight, forcing layoffs and leaving thousands of American jobs in jeopardy.
Mitchell Warren, Executive Director of AVAC, one of the lead plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging the freeze, described the impact bluntly:
“It takes time to build up programs, but it is taking days to destroy them, and it will take more time to re-build, no matter who funds these efforts,” Warren said. “USAID has made America stronger, safer, and more prosperous for decades. It’s no time to throw that away.”
The freeze was enacted under an Executive Order that paused foreign aid for a 90-day review. AVAC and partner organizations argued that the decision was not only unlawful but also inhumane, particularly as it forced them to halt the Coalition to Accelerate & Support Prevention Research (CASPR), a network of African civil society organizations that supports HIV prevention research and community engagement.
Lauren Bateman, an attorney with Public Citizen, which joined the legal fight, warned of the life-and-death stakes:
“When programs are abruptly shuttered, the impacts are felt throughout the world, with the most vulnerable people bearing the deadliest impact,” she said.
A Legal Fight with Global Consequences
The lawsuits, first filed on February 10, 2025, set off a complex, months-long legal battle spanning federal courts, appeals, and even the U.S. Supreme Court. Judge Amir Ali initially issued a temporary restraining order requiring the government to reinstate funding. But compliance was slow and contested, with whistleblowers revealing evidence of deliberate defiance.
By March, the Supreme Court had partially intervened, ordering the release of up to $2 billion. Yet on August 13, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit overturned the lower court’s injunction, handing the administration a major victory.
Warren called the ruling “another victory in their intentional effort to destroy decades of progress in global development, diplomacy, public health, and human rights.” He warned that the decision “further erodes Congress’s role and responsibility as an equal branch of government, and the majority opinion makes the court complicit.”
Communities Left in Limbo
For those on the ground, the freeze has meant more than court filings and legal briefs, it has meant programs halted midstream, research abandoned, and communities left without essential health services.
CASPR’s work connected scientists, journalists, and policymakers in HIV prevention across Africa. Without funding, those connections have frayed. “We built trust with communities, trial participants, and local leaders,” one CASPR coordinator in South Africa said. “Now people are asking if we lied to them.”
As the appeals process continues, advocates warn that even if funding is eventually restored, the damage may be long-lasting. “In public health, you can’t just flip a switch and resume where you left off,” Warren said. “The trust lost, the partnerships broken, those take years to rebuild.”
For now, the plaintiffs vow to keep fighting. “This case is about more than contracts and grants,” Bateman said. “It’s about lives, here and abroad, and the role America chooses to play in the world.”