“The Trump administration on Monday afternoon once again asked the Supreme Court to block an order … that would require the government to fully fund the federal food-stamp program for November despite the government shutdown.”
Meaning: Trump’s government asked the Supreme Court to stop a federal judge’s order. The order said the government must pay full SNAP benefits for November, even during the shutdown.
U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer wrote: “[t]he only way to end this crisis … is for Congress to reopen the government.”
He also said the court order “inject[s] the federal courts into the political branches’ … efforts to end this shutdown.”
SNAP = Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps).
On Oct. 24, the Department of Agriculture said it would pause SNAP benefits for November because of the government shutdown.
Judge John J. McConnell, Jr. ordered on Nov. 1:
Either pay full SNAP benefits by Nov. 3
Or pay partially using emergency funds by Nov. 5
McConnell said: “Compliance is achieved when Americans are fed, not when the federal government shifts … onto the States.”
On Nov. 6, he ordered full SNAP payment by Nov. 7.
The Trump administration asked the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals to pause McConnell’s order.
The court denied the pause but said it would decide quickly.
Sauer then went to the Supreme Court. He said McConnell’s order was “unprecedented” and “makes a mockery of the separation of powers.”
He warned it could “sow further shutdown chaos.”
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson issued a temporary stay until the 1st Circuit made a decision.
The 1st Circuit later rejected the stay, keeping McConnell’s order active.
Sauer wrote that the Senate started reopening the government, including “full funding for SNAP through the end of the fiscal year—though the outcome … remains uncertain.”
He said McConnell’s order “throw[s] a massively inappropriate new variable into negotiations” and “is also sowing upheaval in the SNAP program itself.”
Sauer added:
“The irreparable harms of allowing district courts … are grave enough to warrant a stay.”
He called the order “indefensible on the merits.”
“The court of appeals barely defended the district court’s legal reasoning.”
He asked the Supreme Court to extend the temporary stay and, if the shutdown continues, to put McConnell’s order on hold.
Challengers must file a supplemental brief by 8 a.m. EST Tuesday.
The Supreme Court could act anytime after that.
Nonprofits and cities challenged the Department of Agriculture’s decision to suspend SNAP benefits.
Question: Can the government stop SNAP payments during a shutdown, or must it pay fully?
This case is part of the Supreme Court emergency request for a stay.
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