The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down the Trump administration’s request to keep billions of dollars in foreign aid frozen, ruling 5-4 against the White House. However, the court did not set an immediate timeline for the funds to be released, allowing legal disputes to continue in lower courts.

The decision saw Chief Justice John Roberts joining Amy Coney Barrett, Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Ketanji Brown Jackson in the majority, while Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh dissented.

The majority opinion emphasized that since a court-ordered deadline to allocate the funds had already passed, lower courts should now determine the government’s obligations under the temporary restraining order.

In a sharply worded dissent, Justice Samuel Alito expressed his frustration with the decision, calling it “stunning” that the lower court judge was permitted to order the administration to release the frozen aid.

Despite the ruling, the order does not immediately force the Trump administration to distribute the $2 billion in foreign aid. Instead, it allows the district court to compel payments if it clarifies which contracts must be honored.

Legal analysts note that the four conservative justices’ vigorous dissent signals a likely ongoing divide in the Supreme Court over upcoming Trump-related cases.

“The fact that four justices nevertheless dissented—vigorously—from such a decision is a sign that the Court is going to be divided, perhaps along these exact lines, in many of the more impactful Trump-related cases that are already on their way,” CNN reported.

The case centers around billions of dollars in foreign aid allocated by the State Department and USAID, which Trump froze in January as part of his efforts to curtail government spending and realign federal agencies with his policy agenda.

With the Supreme Court remanding the case to lower courts, the fate of the funds remains uncertain as legal battles over Trump’s authority to block foreign aid continue.