The U.S. Supreme Court has for now allowed the Trump administration to withhold $4 billion in food aid that a judge ordered distributed on Friday to ensure full payment of November benefits to 42 million people.
The administrative stay, issued Friday night by Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, was designed to give the federal appeals court more time to consider the government’s request for a long-term order allowing it to avoid payment.
The impasse involves the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which was at the center of the government shutdown impasse.
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The administration stated it would provide partial financing. But U.S. District Judge John McConnell in Rhode Island said that was insufficient because the complexities of partial payments could prevent the money from reaching SNAP beneficiaries this week.
“The evidence shows that people will go hungry,” the judge said Thursday.
Jackson’s two-page order noted that the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals said earlier on Friday that it intends to act “as expeditiously as possible” on the administration’s pending request to lift McConnell’s order. The 1st Circuit on Friday declined to issue its own administrative stay.
Jackson’s order will be effective for 48 hours after the 1st Circuit’s ruling. This will give the Trump administration time to appeal again to the Supreme Court if it loses in the appeals court.
Jackson, one of the court’s liberal justices, is responsible for handling emergency matters for the 1st Circuit. Although the order was issued in her name, she may have consulted colleagues before acting.
The central question is whether the Department of Agriculture should use available reserves, including resources from child nutrition programs, to avoid underfunding in SNAP.
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Earlier this week, the government committed to covering 65% of this month’s benefits after losing a previous round in court, warning that the recalculation process could cause delays of weeks or even months. Before that, the government had promised to cover only 50% of payments.
“Such a lack of funding is a crisis,” Attorney General D. John Sauer told the Supreme Court. “But it is a crisis caused by the failure of Congress and that can only be resolved by congressional action.”
The groups suing the government told the 1st Circuit that the government was incorrectly claiming that using funds from child nutrition programs would put those programs at risk. The plaintiffs are led by the Rhode Island State Council of Churches.
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“The administration’s callous use of hunger as a political tool is reprehensible and must end,” Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the National Council of Nonprofits, one of the plaintiffs, said in a statement. “The administration’s efforts to delay or reduce SNAP benefits harm both the American people and the community food banks that are doing their best to serve their neighbors in need.”
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