Nationwide — Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the only African American female justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, stepped in to temporarily block a lower court’s order that would have required the Trump administration to fully fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for November by the end of Friday.
According to ABC News, late Friday night, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson issued an order pausing the lower court’s ruling until the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals renders its decision. As the justice overseeing emergency applications from the 1st Circuit, Jackson did not refer the matter to the full Supreme Court. Earlier that same day, the appeals court had rejected the Trump administration’s request for an administrative stay, prompting the administration to appeal directly to the nation’s highest court.
Her ruling means that the USDA does not have to immediately honor a lower court order that required it to transfer $4 billion in emergency agricultural funds to the food assistance program.
The dispute began after U.S. District Judge John McConnell Jr. ordered the administration to use the $4 billion in funds to fully finance SNAP during the ongoing government shutdown. The Trump administration resisted, saying it intended to conserve that money for the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) nutrition program. Solicitor General John Sauer warned in his filing that transferring such a large sum immediately would cause “irreparable harm,” urging the Supreme Court to intervene before the midnight deadline.
In response, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi denounced the lower court’s decision as “judicial activism at its worst,” arguing that one federal judge should not “dictate how scarce federal funds are spent” during a political impasse. The administration argued that redirecting the Section 32 funds from WIC to SNAP would “starve Peter to feed Paul,” creating chaos if every federal program could demand emergency funding through the courts.
Plaintiffs—including local governments and nonprofit organizations—countered that millions of low-income Americans would face devastating consequences without full SNAP payments. They said the government’s claim of financial harm was “entirely unsupported,” pointing out that roughly $23 billion remains available—enough to fund both WIC and SNAP programs through the shutdown. Several states, including California, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and New York, began issuing full SNAP benefits Friday while awaiting the final ruling.
Judge McConnell’s earlier decision harshly criticized the administration for “withholding SNAP benefits for political reasons” and for what he described as President Trump’s open defiance of the judiciary. In his statement, McConnell wrote that “people have gone without for too long,” and declared that delaying payments “for even another day is simply unacceptable.” The administration, meanwhile, maintained that Trump’s comments merely reflected “a fact”—that SNAP funding cannot be fully restored until Congress passes new appropriations to reopen the government.
As the legal fight continues, millions of families remain in limbo. While some states have managed to distribute benefits early, others are awaiting federal guidance. The Supreme Court’s temporary pause ensures that the question of whether the administration must immediately release $4 billion in emergency funds to fully cover November’s SNAP payments remains unresolved—at least until the appellate court delivers its judgment.