Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) signage at a grocery store in Dorchester, Massachusetts, USA, on Monday, November 3, 2025.
Mel Musto | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The Supreme Court on Tuesday extended a pause on a federal judge’s order requiring the Trump administration to pay full SNAP benefits for November until late Thursday evening.
The two-day delay, which Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson objected to, gives Congress time to pass a short-term funding bill that would reopen the U.S. government, which has been closed since Oct. 1, and fund the SNAP program, which provides food stamps to 42 million Americans.
The Trump administration had argued in a filing with the Supreme Court on Monday that the tangled legal battle over benefits could soon be moot if Congress passes the bill this week.
If the bill passes and SNAP benefits are paid out as normal, it would eliminate the justification for lawsuits demanding that they continue during the shutdown.
The House of Representatives is expected to begin voting on the Senate-approved bill on Wednesday afternoon, and President Donald Trump has indicated he will sign the bill.
Judge Jack McConnell of the U.S. District Court for Rhode Island ordered the government to pay all SNAP benefits last Thursday, rejecting the government’s plan to pay only 65% of that aid. The government had originally planned not to pay benefits in November, despite having $4.6 billion available from an emergency fund to do so.
McConnell directed federal officials to use not only the emergency fund but also funds from the child nutrition program to fund the full benefits, but the administration refused.
A federal appeals court in Boston upheld McConnell’s order, but a short-term stay imposed by Judge Jackson blocked the order. This stay was scheduled to expire on Tuesday evening.
In its Tuesday order extending the stay for two days, the Supreme Court said the administration’s request for a longer stay of the order had been referred to the full court for consideration pending an appeal.
The court said the stay would remain in effect until 11:59 p.m. ET Thursday.
The court’s order Tuesday said Jackson stated she would “deny the request for an extension of the administrative stay and deny the motion.” There was no written objection from Jackson justifying her objection.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, whose state sued the federal government in a separate case to force payment of all SNAP benefits during the shutdown, said in a statement: “This decision means millions of Americans will once again have to question how they will feed their families.”
“We hope this suffering will soon end as the government reopens and SNAP is fully funded again. In the meantime, all New Yorkers who received their SNAP benefits in November should not be afraid to claim them.”
Comments are closed.