Trump Administration Asks Supreme Court to Block Ruling Ordering It to Pay Full Food Benefits
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
UPDATE: The Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration on Friday night and blocked a lower court ruling that ordered the government to pay out all Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits.
President Donald Trump’s administration asked the Supreme Court to block an order forcing the government to resume full funding for federal food assistance.
The administration filed an 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 the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) must be fully funded.
Congress was unable to pass an appropriations bill to fund the government beyond Oct. 1. Among the casualties were SNAP benefits for 42 million Americans, which the Trump administration said lapsed on November 1.
On Oct. 31, two federal judges 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 on Monday, 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.
The Justice Department responded by promptly asking the Supreme Court to block the ruling by issuing an emergency stay.
“A single district court in Rhode Island should not be able to seize center stage in the shutdown, seek to upend political negotiations that could produce swift political solutions for SNAP and other programs, and dictate its own preferences for how scarce federal funds should be spent,” Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote on X.
At least nine states began issuing November SNAP benefits despite the legal disputes on Friday, including California and New York.
