A federal appeals court in Boston, for a second time, late Sunday flatly rejected a request by the Trump administration to block a lower court judge’s order that it pay 42 million Americans their full SNAP benefits during the government shutdown.
But the judge’s order remains paused as a result of a prior Supreme Court ruling until at least Tuesday night.
That gives the administration time to return to the Supreme Court and ask for a permanent stay of the order pending its appeal of the case.
The ruling Sunday by a three-judge panel of the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals came a day after the U.S. Department of Agriculture threatened states that have issued full benefits since Friday with financial penalties if they do not “undo” those payments.
And it came hours after the Senate narrowly passed the first step of a bipartisan deal that might reopen the government within days, and fully fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program through next September.
