Washington — Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson on Friday froze, for now, a lower court order that required the Trump administration to swiftly provide full federal food benefits to roughly 42 million Americans.
The order from Jackson is temporary. She said it will give a federal appeals court more time to consider whether to provide the Trump administration with longer emergency relief while an appeal in the dispute over payments for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program moves forward.
The Supreme Court’s late-stage intervention came as the Trump administration closed in on an end-of-day deadline, set by a district court judge Thursday, to cover in full food assistance for November and use roughly $4 billion for other nutrition programs to do so. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit had temporarily left in place the lower court’s decision, after which the Justice Department sought emergency relief from the Supreme Court.
Jackson wrote in a brief order that her administrative stay will “facilitate the First Circuit’s expeditious resolution” of the Trump administration’s request for the longer pause of the district court’s decision. She said the appeals court should resolve the pending motion “with dispatch.”
In its emergency appeal to the Supreme Court, the Trump administration said it has already exhausted the entirety of a more than $5 billion contingency reserve, which was enough to provide only partial food assistance payments for the month. It warned that the additional $4 billion needed to cover the full allotments for low-income Americans would require it to dip into a fund designated for Child Nutrition Programs.
“Pulling billions of dollars from the Child Nutrition Programs would jeopardize those programs’ ability to fully operate this year — putting at risk critical food-assistance initiatives relied upon by millions of children every day, and raiding a program that Congress did fund to instead extend one that Congress has not funded,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in a Supreme Court filing.
A USDA official notified states earlier Friday that it was working to comply with the district court’s order to provide in-full the food benefits to Americans enrolled in SNAP.
The Supreme Court’s decision is the latest development in the legal battle over SNAP benefits that has unfolded over the past several days. The payments are used by recipients to purchase groceries, but the USDA said late last month that assistance for November would not go out because of the ongoing government shutdown.
A group of cities and nonprofit organizations sued the USDA last week amid rising concerns that the lapse in payments would leave millions of low-income Americans hungry. U.S. District Judge John McConnell, who is overseeing the case, then ordered the Trump administration to dip into a contingency fund to provide food aid to the roughly 42 million Americans enrolled in the program for November.
The administration told the court Monday that it would comply with that order but said there was only enough reserve money to provide partial SNAP benefits. The USDA sent states the information needed to calculate the reduced payments to eligible Americans on Tuesday, but warned it could be weeks before the assistance reaches recipients.
The plaintiffs then asked McConnell for additional relief that would require the Trump administration to make full SNAP payments “immediately.”
In a decision Thursday, McConnell accused the government of undermining the “intent and the effectiveness” of his earlier order to distribute the aid to SNAP beneficiaries as soon as possible. He pointed to a social media post from President Trump on Tuesday, in which the president said benefits would be given “only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!”
Amid confusion as to whether the president was signaling the administration would not follow McConnell’s initial order to use the contingency funds, the White House clarified that it is complying with it.
Still, the judge said the Trump administration had to provide the full SNAP payments and pull from two sources — the contingency fund and a different pot — to do so. McConnell said comments from administration officials indicate that food benefits are being withheld for “political purposes.”
In seeking emergency relief from the 1st Circuit, the Justice Department claimed that the judge’s order “makes a mockery of the separation of powers” and directed the USDA to find $4 billion “in the metaphorical couch cushions.”
Trump administration officials have said there was $4.6 billion available in the contingency fund to cover a partial allotment for November, and would need $9 billion to provide the full amount of SNAP benefits.
Justice Department lawyers wrote in a filing that the judge’s order to transfer funds from the second source of money would require it to divert billions from Child Nutrition Programs, which provide food assistance benefits to millions of children.
“Unfortunately, by injecting itself with its erroneous short-term solution, the district court has scrambled ongoing political negotiations, extending the shutdown and thus undercutting its own objective of ensuring adequate funding for SNAP and all other crucial safety-net programs,” they said.
In the filing with the Supreme Court, Sauer said that if left in place, McConnell’s decision “will metastasize and sow further shutdown chaos.”
“To comply with yesterday’s abrupt TRO, the government must transfer billions of dollars to SNAP and send that money to the States by tonight,” he wrote. “Once those billions are out the door, there is no ready mechanism for the government to recover those funds — to the significant detriment of those other critical social programs whose budgets the district court ordered the government to raid.”
But lawyers for the cities and nonprofits claimed to the appeals court that Trump administration officials “callously disregard” the harm to them and millions of Americans if assistance is provided below the full level.
They urged the 1st Circuit to not let the Trump administration “further delay getting vital food assistance to individuals and families who need it now.”
