After all, the Supreme Court is stacked with six Republican appointees, including three selected by Trump in his first term. The

Chief Justice John Roberts has temporarily halted a lower court order requiring the Trump administration to unfreeze nearly $2 billion in foreign aid.

The high court ruled 5-3 in favor of Glossip and reversed a decision of the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals that upheld his conviction and death sentence. Justice Sonia Sotomayor delivered the opinion for the court and was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Elena Kagan,

President Donald Trump is sworn in by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts during his inauguration ceremony as the 47th president in the Rotunda at the Capitol in Washington on Monday morning, Jan.

Chief Justice John Roberts said late Wednesday that the order issued by U.S. District Judge Amir H. Ali will remain on hold until the high court has a chance to weigh in more fully.

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Wednesday night paused a lower court-imposed midnight deadline to restart $2 billion in foreign aid payments after the Trump administration paused 10,000 awards.

Lawyers for the government had said it would miss a deadline to release more than $1.5 billion in payments for past aid work and sought a late intervention from the Supreme Court.

The SCOTUS ruling blocks a court order that compelled the Trump administration to release funding to USAID by midnight on Wednesday.

Chief justice gives court additional time to consider the administration's more formal request to block lower court ruling

Chief Justice John Roberts on Wednesday paused a court-imposed midnight deadline that would have required the Trump administration to release $2 billion in frozen foreign aid, a goal that the government has claimed it is unable to meet.