(WASHINGTON) — Following developments in the effort to end the ongoing government shutdown, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson has asked the Trump administration to indicate whether it still intends to pursue a full stay of SNAP payouts for the month of November.
The move comes as the administration seeks to “undo” hundreds of millions of dollars in SNAP benefits that went out after the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which operates SNAP, told states Friday afternoon that it was “working towards implementing November 2025 full benefit issuances” to comply with a court order.
The administration asked the Supreme Court on Friday for an emergency stay of a lower court’s ruling ordering the administration to fully fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for the month of November, which Justice Jackson granted pending a decision on the administration’s appeal to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Late Sunday, the circuit court denied the administration’s appeal, rejecting the administration’s argument that harm suffered by the government by complying with the order would outweigh the harm suffered by the millions of Americans who rely on the food assistance program.
“These immediate, predictable, and unchallenged harms facing forty-two million Americans who rely on SNAP benefits — including fourteen million children — weigh heavily against a stay,” wrote Judge Julie Rikelman.
With Judge Jackson’s temporary stay of the order now set to expire, Jackson has asked the administration and the group of local governments and nonprofits who brought the original lawsuit to submit supplemental briefing materials should the administration continue to seek a stay of the payments.
After U.S. District Judge John McConnell Jr. last month ordered the Trump administration to fully fund SNAP benefits for the month of November, the administration said it would partially fund SNAP with approximately $4.5 billion but that it needed the remaining funds to support WIC programs that feed children.
The administration appealed McConnell’s decision to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which late Sunday denied the appeal.
On Saturday the USDA told states that they must “immediately undo any steps taken to issue full SNAP benefits for November 2025” but 20 states said they had already begun the process of issuing full November benefits.
A federal judge in Boston has set an emergency hearing for Monday afternoon to consider the legality of the administration’s guidance that states “undo” SNAP benefits.
A group of state attorneys general argue that it would be nearly impossible — as well as unfair and illegal — to unwind hundreds of millions in SNAP benefits after they have already been issued.
“In the span of less than a week, USDA has circulated multiple formal guidance documents, each inconsistent with the prior one, forcing the Plaintiffs into a continual state of whiplash,” they argued in a court filing.
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