Journalism of Courage
US President Donald Trump’s administration on Friday asked the US Supreme Court to halt a judge’s order requiring it to promptly and fully fund a food aid program for 42 million low-income Americans this month amid the federal government shutdown.
The administration filed an emergency request asking the justices to act within hours to put on hold a Rhode Island-based judge’s order requiring the Department of Agriculture to cover an expected $4 billion shortfall by Friday for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP or food stamps.
The ruling by US District Judge John McConnell in Providence on Thursday came after the administration said it would provide $4.65 billion in emergency funding to partially cover SNAP benefits for November. Full funding for the program costs $8.5 billion to $9 billion per month.
Department of Justice lawyers said in a Supreme Court filing that McConnell’s ruling, if allowed to stand, will “sow further shutdown chaos” by prompting “a run on the bank by way of judicial fiat.”
McConnell last week ordered the USDA to use emergency SNAP funding to cover part of this month’s cost. In Thursday’s ruling, he ordered the USDA to make up for the shortfall with money from a separate department program with $23.35 billion in funding, derived from tariffs, that supports child nutrition.
McConnell, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, accused the Republican Trump administration of withholding SNAP benefits for “political reasons.”
The ruling handed a win to a coalition of legal challengers comprising cities and nonprofits represented by the liberal legal group Democracy Forward, and prompted the administration to ask the Boston-based 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday to halt the order.
The plaintiffs told the 1st Circuit in court papers that the administration showed disregard for the harm that would befall nearly one in eight Americans if McConnell’s decision were paused and SNAP recipients were denied full benefits. “The court should deny Defendants’ motion and not allow them to further delay getting vital food assistance to individuals and families who need it now,” the lawyers wrote.
The 1st Circuit on Friday denied the Trump administration’s request to pause McConnell’s ruling, prompting the Justice Department’s emergency request to the Supreme Court.
The USDA on Friday informed states it would be making funds available to fully fund SNAP, even as the administration filed court papers seeking to block McConnell’s ruling, causing confusion. After receiving the USDA memo, states including New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts said they had directed state agencies to issue SNAP benefits in full for November.
“President Trump should never have put the American people in this position,” Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey, a Democrat, said in a statement.
SNAP benefits lapsed at the start of the month for the first time in the program’s 60-year history. Recipients have turned to already strained food pantries and made sacrifices like forgoing medications to stretch tight budgets.
SNAP benefits are paid monthly to eligible Americans whose income is less than 130% of the federal poverty line. The maximum monthly benefit for the 2026 fiscal year is $298 for a one-person household and $546 for a two-person household.
