MIAMI, FLORIDA – OCTOBER 31: A ‘We Accept (Food Stamps)’ sign hangs in the window of a grocery store on October 31, 2025 in Miami, Florida. The food stamp program, now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), may run out of funding on November 1st due to the federal government shutdown, which is now entering its second month. In Miami-Dade County, nearly one in six residents receives food assistance. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
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The Supreme Court on Friday night temporarily paused a federal judge’s order that directed the Trump administration to pay full SNAP benefits to 42 million Americans for November by the end of the day.
The move came hours after the 1st Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Boston denied the administration’s emergency request to halt the order relating to food stamp benefits to primarily low-income people.
But the appeals court also said it would soon rule on whether the administration was entitled to a stay of the order by U.S. District Court in Rhode Island Judge Jack McConnell while its appeal of the order plays out.
Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, in the order on Friday night in favor of the administration, pushed the 1st Circuit to quickly determine whether to issue that stay.
“The applicants assert that, without intervention from this Court, they will have to ‘transfer an estimated $4 billion by tonight’ to fund SNAP benefits through November,” Jackson wrote.
That money was to come from so-called Section 32 funds that the Trump administration said it did not want to use to augment a partial payment of SNAP benefits that federal officials planned to make. The partial benefits payment would come from $4.6 billion in contingency funds set aside by Congress for that purpose.
The administration originally planned not to pay any SNAP benefits in November because of the ongoing government shutdown.
“Given the First Circuit’s representations, an administrative stay is required to facilitate the First Circuit’s expeditious resolution of the pending stay motion,” Jackson wrote.
She said that the Supreme Court’s stay “will terminate forty-eight hours after the First Circuit’s resolution of the pending motion, which the First Circuit is expected to issue with dispatch.”
That two-day window would give time for the Trump administration, or plaintiffs in the case, to return to the Supreme Court to challenge any ruling by the 1st Circuit.
It is not clear to what extent Jackson’s order will affect payments of SNAP benefits.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture earlier Friday told states it would begin disbursing full SNAP benefits to comply with McConnell’s order, even as the administration appealed the ruling.
The USDA’s memo did not suggest that the administration would renege on that plan even if a higher court blocked the order.
The Associated Press reported late Friday that more than half a dozen states had “confirmed that some SNAP recipients already were…
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