Supreme Court Blocks Order Trump Admin Fro Pay Full Snap Benefits
The Supreme Court has issued a ruling blocking a federal judge’s order requiring the Trump administration to pay Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits in full for November.
The Supreme Court’s decision came after the Trump administration requested to block U.S. District Judge John McConnell’s order that the administration distribute full SNAP benefits by Friday, according to the Associated Press.
By the point of sale:
A judge had given the Republican administration until Friday to make payments through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. But the administration asked the appeals court to suspend any court order requiring it to spend more money than is available in a contingency fund, and instead allow it to continue with scheduled partial SNAP payments for the month.
Although Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson temporarily stayed McConnell’s order to “give an appeals court more time to evaluate the legal arguments raised by the government,” she did not issue a ruling “on the legality” of the Trump administration’s actions, according to the New York Times.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) previously issued a memo saying it would provide full SNAP benefits for the month of November. In the memo, the USDA said the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) was “working to implement the November 2025 full benefit issues” in order to comply with a court order that full payment of SNAP benefits must be made by Friday.
The memo also said FNS would complete the processes “later today” as part of an effort to ensure funds for SNAP were available.
“FNS is working to implement the award of full benefits in November 2025, consistent with the November 6, 2025 order of the District Court of Rhode Island,” the memo states. “Later today, FNS will complete the necessary process to make funds available to support your subsequent transmission of the complete issue files to your EBT processor.”
The Supreme Court’s order comes as an estimated 42 million SNAP recipients failed to receive their benefits earlier this month in response to the government shutdown — which spanned 38 days.
NPR reported that in response to McConnell’s decision, several states — such as Pennsylvania, Oregon and California — revealed that “they would provide full SNAP benefits” to recipients.
