The US Supreme Court has paused a judge’s order that required the administration of US President Donald Trump to promptly take steps to spend billions in Congressionally approved foreign aid.

On Tuesday, one day after the government requested the emergency stay, the nation’s highest court granted the request.

Known as an administrative stay, the court’s action gave the justices additional time to consider the administration’s formal request to let it withhold some $4bn authorised by Congress ahead of a September 30 deadline.

The order calls for the organisations that sued over the withheld funds to file a response before Friday afternoon.

The stay was issued by Chief Justice John Roberts, who handles emergency filings arising in Washington. As is typical with emergency stays, the brief order provides no legal reasoning.

Legal experts have raised alarm at the Supreme Court’s use of emergency rulings, which once were rare but have ballooned under the Trump administration. Such rulings, critics maintain, lack transparency by providing no explanation of the legal reasoning behind the justices’ decisions.