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The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to extend its temporary stay of a lower court order that the Trump administration immediately pay the full Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for the month of November, delivering a near-term win to the administration, just hours after it appealed the matter to the high court for emergency intervention.
Trump officials had urged the Supreme Court in a supplemental brief Monday afternoon to keep in place an emergency stay handed down by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson last week. The new action keeps the stay in place through 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 13.
U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauerhad asked the Supreme Court Monday to grant an emergency stay ordering them to resume full SNAP payments before the end of the government shutdown in Congress.
At issue was whether the Trump administration must resume full SNAP benefit payments for the month of November, after they lapsed at the start of the month during the government shutdown.
States sued last month to keep the benefits in place, arguing that suspending the aid would disproportionately harm some tens of millions of vulnerable and low-income Americans in their states.
“Because of USDA’s actions, SNAP benefits will be delayed for the first time since the program’s inception,” they said.
TRUMP, STATES BACK IN COURT OVER SNAP AS BENEFITS REMAIN IN LEGAL LIMBO
Lower courts had sided with the states in ordering the SNAP benefits to be paid in full, prompting the Trump administration to appeal the issue to the Supreme Court for emergency intervention.
In appealing the case, Trump’s legal team had argued that the lower court judges overstepped their powers, and urged the Supreme Court to keep in place an emergency stay handed down late last week by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
They cited the progress Congress has made towards resolving the ongoing shutdown, and added that, in their view, “the answer to this crisis is not for federal courts to reallocate resources without lawful authority.”
“The only way to end this crisis — which the Executive is adamant to end — is for Congress to reopen the government,” they added.
DOJ ACCUSES FEDERAL JUDGE OF MAKING ‘MOCKERY OF THE SEPARATION OF POWERS’ IN SNAP APPEAL
States, for their part, accused the Trump administration of playing politics with SNAP benefits, or the food aid that provides benefits to roughly one in eight Americans.
“Any further stay would prolong that irreparable harm and add to the chaos the government has unleashed, with lasting impacts on the administration of SNAP,” they told the Supreme Court in a filing of their own Tuesday morning.
“The government has offered no defensible justification for that result,” they added. “The administrative stay should be terminated, and no further stay should be granted.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a directive Saturday ordering that states “immediately undo any steps taken to issue full SNAP benefits,” in compliance with the court order just 24 hours earlier, and to instead allocate only the partial 65% SNAP payments for the month that the administration had agreed to.
Trump officials said that states that failed to comply would face steep economic penalties, prompting emergency intervention from U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, who agreed on Monday afternoon to pause the USDA guidance, citing confusion over the guidance.
New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin described the actions to reporters Monday as the “most heinous thing” he had seen while in office.
“There are more children in New Jersey on SNAP than consists of the entire population of our state’s largest city,” he said in a press conference Monday, in an effort to contextualize the number of people in the Garden State alone who receive SNAP benefits.
This is a breaking news story. Check back soon for updates.
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