By Lydia Wheeler and James Romoser

The Supreme Court on Friday paused a lower-court order that directed the Trump administration to fully fund federal food assistance benefits for November.

The interim order from Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, known as an administrative stay, stops the government from having to comply immediately with a ruling from U.S. District Judge John McConnell in Rhode Island that directed the Trump administration to fully fund benefits for November under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, by Friday.

McConnell said Thursday the administration had defied an earlier order to use emergency funds to "expeditiously" keep food-benefit payments going during the government shutdown. The government agreed to use $4.65 billion in contingency funds to make partial payments, but warned it could take several weeks or months for states to deliver benefits to recipients. It declined to use other funding sources to make up the shortfall, although the Agriculture Department said in guidance to states earlier on Friday that it was working to implement the full benefits for November in compliance with McConnell's order.

McConnell on Thursday called the delay in delivering benefits "unacceptable" and ordered the government to supplement emergency funds with money allocated for child nutrition assistance programs. SNAP benefits, which are used by about 42 million Americans, total roughly $8 billion a month.

The Trump administration asked the Boston-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit to halt the order, but it declined to immediately do so on Friday evening. The administration then asked the Supreme Court to intervene quickly.

Jackson's order remains in effect until the First Circuit decides whether to place a longer-term pause on McConnell's ruling. The appeal went to Jackson first because she is the justice assigned to oversee the First Circuit. It isn't unusual for the court to issue very brief pauses to maintain the status quo.

Solicitor General John Sauer, in his brief to the Supreme Court, said McConnell's order "makes a mockery of the separation of powers."

"The core power of Congress is that of the purse, while the Executive is tasked with allocating limited resources across competing priorities," he wrote. "But here, the court below took the current shutdown as effective license to declare a federal bankruptcy and appoint itself the trustee, charged with picking winners and losers among those seeking some part of the limited pool of remaining federal funds."

SNAP, a program formerly known as food stamps, helps millions of poor and disabled people buy food. Though benefits have typically been paid during a government shutdown, the Trump administration announced last month that it would pause payments in November because of the lapse in appropriations.

Lawsuits challenging the suspension of benefits were quickly filed by states, as well as a coalition of cities and nonprofit groups, leading McConnell and a federal judge in Massachusetts to rule the administration must use emergency funds to make payments.

In urging the First Circuit to preserve McConnell's ruling, the coalition that sued in Rhode Island said children and families are going hungry and "time is of the essence." The delay in distributing benefits has left recipients in limbo and forced some states to take emergency action to mitigate the delay.

Write to Lydia Wheeler at lydia.wheeler@wsj.com and James Romoser at james.romoser@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 07, 2025 21:59 ET (02:59 GMT)

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