Residents across the nation started to receive their full SNAP food aid benefits on Friday after an appeals court left in place, for now, a requirement that the Trump administration fund such benefits during the government shutdown.
The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to strike down a federal judge’s order requiring it to restore payments of SNAP benefits to millions of Americans that were halted due to the ongoing government shutdown.
The administration appealed to the high court after an appellate judge refused its request to allow it to only partially fund benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for November.
Some of the more than 42 million Americans saw their SNAP benefits — also known as food stamps — restored for the month earlier this week when a federal judge issued an order requiring the Trump administration to make the payments that were put on pause after Oct. 31.
Within hours, Solicitor General D. John Sauer asked the justices to intervene, arguing that the lower court had forced the administration to spend money Congress hadn’t appropriated.
“This unprecedented injunction makes a mockery of the separation of powers,” Sauer wrote in an emergency filing.
The court battle left millions of low-income Americans in limbo, with some states racing to disburse aid while others waited for new guidance.
