Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson temporarily blocked a judge’s order directing the Trump administration to provide the full amount of food aid scheduled for November.
Judge Jackson issued an administrative stay, suspending for the time being lower court rulings that the Trump administration had opposed in a legal battle over whether federal officials should disburse the funds.
Earlier Friday, the Trump administration said it was working to pay out the benefits to comply with a court order, implying that the money would actually go toward a program that is a vital lifeline for millions of people who rely on it to buy groceries.
In her terse order, Ms. Jackson said she was suspending the lower court’s directions to allow time for the appeals court to rule on the issue.
All of this comes amid an ongoing court battle over Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, which have been at an impasse since the federal government shutdown and which the Trump administration refuses to fund with other funds.
SNAP benefits, the largest hunger-relief program in the United States, help approximately 42 million people, primarily children, seniors, and adults with disabilities. The funding blockage has left families across the country in distressing uncertainty and forcing them to tighten their purse strings as they wait for help.
PHOTO ERIC GAY, ASSOCIATED PRESS
San Antonio Food Bank volunteers load bags of potatoes for distribution to SNAP recipients and other households affected by the federal service shutdown, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025
On Thursday, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to pay full benefits for the month of November, ruling that “irreparable harm would be caused if millions of people were forced to go without funds to put food on the table.”
In his order, Federal Judge John J. McConnell Jr. of Rhode Island directed the administration to pay benefits in full by Friday using other funds. He also chastised federal officials for choosing to make partial payments, saying they knew it would only further delay aid to people.
“Such behavior is more than poor judgment; it is arbitrary and capricious,” wrote Mr. McConnell, who was appointed by President Barack Obama.
The Trump administration said the lack of funds for SNAP benefits was due to “congressional failure” and opposed the use of other funding sources. In court papers, the Justice Department said the administration refused “to tap into an entirely different program,” which would result in a shortfall in school lunch funding.
The Department of Justice appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for 1er circuit, asking the judges to stay Mr. McConnell’s orders. The agency said he “violated the separation of powers” by ordering officials to transfer funds from one food security program to another.
On Friday evening, a three-judge panel of that court declined to temporarily stay Judge McConnell’s order, but said it was still considering a request to stay his ruling pending the outcome of an appeal. The Supreme Court’s administrative order stayed McConnell’s decision until the panel rules on the motion.
With the appeals court request still pending, the Trump administration requested an emergency measure from the Supreme Court, asking the justices to stay Mr. McConnell’s directive.
If the high court failed to act, “the government would be forced to make an irretrievable transfer of several billion dollars by the end of the day,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in a filing.
Once the administration transfers the required $4 billion, Mr. Sauer wrote, states will pay the money and federal officials will not be able to get it back. And some had already paid their full SNAP benefits for the month, he added.
Mr. Sauer criticized Mr. McConnell’s order, writing that the judge was “appropriating sensitive funding decisions in the midst of a shutdown in a way that obstructs efforts to end the shutdown.”
The funding breakdown is a crisis created by Congress and must be resolved by Congress, Mr. Sauer wrote.
He also said the judge was setting a dangerous precedent that government officials could dictate when to reallocate funds to close deficits, “precisely the type of decision that Congress has left to the discretion of agencies and placed beyond the reach of judges.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi also criticized Mr. McConnell, writing in social media posts that his order was “totally illegal” and amounted to “judicial activism.”
PHOTO JONATHAN ERNST, REUTERS
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi listens to President Donald Trump
Earlier Friday, the Agriculture Department signaled its intention to comply with Judge McConnell’s ruling in a notice sent to states, indicating that at that time the funds would indeed arrive.
The Agriculture Department was “working to implement full payment of November 2025 benefits in accordance” with the order and would “complete the necessary procedures to make funds available” later Friday, wrote Patrick A. Penn, deputy assistant secretary for food, nutrition, and consumer services at the department. The USDA, along with state officials who received the notification, forwarded copies to the Washington Post.
Before the administration went to the Supreme Court, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services said it was informed Friday afternoon that the Agriculture Department would “fully fund SNAP benefits for the month of November.” The North Carolina agency said in a statement that it is “working with its federal partners to process the remainder of November and beneficiaries could see the additional funds” on their cards potentially by this weekend.
State officials sought to understand developments regarding benefits on Friday. One official described the situation as “very changeable.”
A spokesperson for the Missouri Department of Human Services said the agency anticipates people in the state will begin receiving their SNAP benefits by the middle of next week. The timeline will remain the same whether people receive partial or full benefits, the spokesperson said.
Other officials said they would distribute the benefits or were preparing to do so. The office of Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek (D-) said in a statement that, under her leadership, the state’s Department of Human Services had “worked through the night to deliver November benefits in full by Friday morning, so families across the state can have access to the food they need.”
The plaintiffs in the McConnell case before it — a group including nonprofits and several cities that warn they will have to divert resources to support families who rely on SNAP assistance — said the Trump administration’s arguments about funding “cruelly ignore the grave harm” suffered by millions of people deprived of these benefits.
“For a week now, these families have been deprived of the help they urgently need to meet their basic nutritional needs,” they wrote in a court filing Friday.
In court papers, the plaintiffs said that simply granting a brief reprieve to McConnell’s order could cause serious harm to the public.
Millions will go hungry without SNAP benefits, they wrote. And the problems extend beyond that, they continued, adding that organizations and cities trying to fill the void are facing staffing shortages and struggling to provide resources and help in other areas.
In his order, McConnell expressed disbelief at the Trump administration’s argument that it could not tap other sources of funding, writing that the administration was prioritizing “a hypothetical disruption of child support” that could occur next May, if at all.
“It is inconceivable” that the administration would focus on this potential funding disruption in the future “rather than the very real and immediate risk that children will be deprived of their food assistance today,” he wrote.
