WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday allowed President Donald Trump’s administration to withhold for now about $4 billion needed to fully fund a food aid program for 42 million low-income Americans this month amid the federal government shutdown.

The court’s order, known as an administrative stay, gives a lower court additional time to consider the administration’s formal request to only partially fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP or food stamps, for November. The administration had faced a judge-ordered Friday deadline to fully fund the program.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who issued the stay, set it to expire two days after the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rules on the administration’s request to halt a judge’s order that the U.S. Department of Agriculture promptly pay the full amount of this month’s SNAP benefits, which cost $8.5 billion to $9 billion per month.

Jackson expects lower court to act quickly

The ruling by U.S. District Judge John McConnell in Providence, Rhode Island, on Thursday came after the administration said it would provide $4.65 billion in emergency funding to partially cover SNAP benefits for November.

Jackson, the liberal justice assigned to review emergency appeals from a group of states that include Rhode Island, said the 1st Circuit was expected to rule on the administration’s request to block McConnell’s order “with dispatch.”

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi noted the Supreme Court’s decision in a post on X, which paused a court ruling she deemed “judicial activism at its worst.”

Department of Justice lawyers told the Supreme Court that McConnell’s ruling, if allowed to stand, would “sow further shutdown chaos” by prompting “a run on the bank by way of judicial fiat.”

The administration originally planned to suspend SNAP benefits altogether in November, citing a lack of funding because of the shutdown.

But 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.”

His ruling was a win for a coalition of legal challengers comprising cities, unions and nonprofits represented by the liberal legal group Democracy Forward, and prompted the administration to ask the 1st Circuit on Friday to halt the order.

The plaintiffs told the 1st Circuit 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.

Confusion over states’ funding

The 1st Circuit on Friday denied the Trump administration’s request to administratively stay McConnell’s ruling.

It has yet to issue a ruling on the administration’s formal request to halt the judge’s order, but the 1st Circuit panel, which consisted of three judges appointed by Democratic presidents, said it would do so “as quickly as possible.”

Skye Perryman, the head of Democracy Forward, told MSNBC that the courts hearing cases over the withholding of SNAP benefits “have been very clear, that this administration not only had the legal authority to make these payments but that the administration must make these payments.”

Hours before Friday’s Supreme Court order, the USDA informed states it was working to comply with McConnell’s order by making funds available to fully fund SNAP, even as the administration moved to appeal 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.

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