WASHINGTON − The Supreme Court late Friday said the Trump administration doesn't have to promptly pay full SNAP food benefits for now, in a last-minute − but temporary − order that leaves in limbo the 42 million Americans who rely on food stamps.
The court briefly paused a lower court's ruling requiring the administration to use a combination of contingency funds and other funds to make the full November payments to states during the federal government shutdown.
The temporary pause issued by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, known as an administrative stay, gives an appeals court more time to fully consider Trump's request.
The administration had said it could make only partial payments, not transfer another $4 billion to states by Friday evening.
But U.S. District Judge John McConnell in Rhode Island said the administration's arguments for not using funds designated for child nutrition programs to fill in the gap in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits in November were "implausible," given the child programs are projected to have funding until at least May, and Congress can replenish the funds before then.
