Judge Contradicts Supreme Court, Rules Trump Admin Must Fully Fund SNAP Benefits

AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough

A Boston appeals court rejected a request by the Trump administration on Sunday to overturn a prior ruling that would force the government to fully fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) despite the government shutdown.

This is the Boston court’s second ruling on the issue – with the court once again refusing to stay an order that would force President Donald Trump to fully fund nutrition assistance benefits for 42 million Americans

“The record here shows that the government sat on its hands for nearly a month, unprepared to make partial payments, while people who rely on SNAP received no benefits a week into November and counting,” wrote Circuit Court Judge Julie Rikelman in the decision.

Complicating the ongoing legal battle over funding for food stamp programs is the Supreme Court’s Friday ruling blocking a previous judge’s order compelling full SNAP payments. The Supreme Court’s stay, made at the White House’s request, will pause the Boston court’s ruling from taking effect until Tuesday night at the earliest.

The administration filed the emergency stay application to the Supreme Court on Friday after a federal appeals court denied the White House’s request to lift a lower court’s decision ordering that SNAP must be fully funded.

Previously, two federal judges had ordered the Trump administration to use emergency funds to pay for SNAP, something the president said he would do only if he was “given the appropriate legal direction by the Court.”

The administration agreed to partially fund the program last week, with a $4.65 billion payment that comprised only 65% of the maximum monthly benefit.

U.S. District Judge John McConnell, one of the judges who initially ordered funding for SNAP, ruled on Thursday that the administration was not moving fast enough to comply with his previous order. He issued a new ruling ordering full funding of SNAP and directly criticizing the president’s “intent to defy the court order.”

The Trump administration attempted to block the ruling in a court filing on Friday, asking a federal appeals court to suspend the order and allow the government to continue to make only partial payments.

“This unprecedented injunction makes a mockery of the separation of powers. Courts hold neither the power to appropriate nor the power to spend,” the U.S. Department of Justice wrote in its request to the court.

Later that same day, an appeals court denied the administration’s request to lift the lower court’s order, but maintained that they were still considering the “government’s motion for a stay pending appeal [of McConnell’s order] … and we intend to issue a decision on that motion as quickly as possible.”

It was this issue, whether McConnell’s ruling had erred and whether he had the jurisdiction to actually rule on the issue, that the court decided on late Sunday. They once again rebuffed the administration’s efforts to avoid paying SNAP benefits in full, writing bluntly in the decision that “the answer is no.”

The Trump administration is expected to, once again, ask the Supreme Court to block the ruling.