The groups that sued insist the court’s ruling ought to force the Trump administration to restore all funding delivered via U.S.A.I.D. But the administration says it has the power to decimate the agency.

A divided Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected the Trump administration’s request to keep billions of dollars in foreign aid approved by Congress frozen.

The justices split 5-4 on whether to halt a judge’s order to restart nearly $2 billion in State Department and USAID payments for work that has been done.