SCOTUS rules on emergency SNAP payments

THE Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to extend the temporary stay of a lower court order requiring the Trump administration to immediately pay Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits in full for the month of November, delivering a short-term victory to the administration just hours after it appealed the case to the high court for emergency intervention.

Trump officials had urged the Supreme Court in a supplemental brief Monday afternoon to keep in effect the emergency stay issued by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson last week. The new action keeps the stay in place until 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, November 13.

U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer on Monday asked the Supreme Court to grant an emergency stay, ordering it to resume full SNAP payments before the government shutdown ends in Congress.

At issue was whether the Trump administration should resume full payment of SNAP benefits for the month of November, after they expired earlier in the month during the government shutdown.

The states sued last month to continue the benefits, arguing that withholding aid would disproportionately harm a few tens of millions of vulnerable and low-income Americans in their states.

“As a result of USDA’s actions, SNAP benefits will be delayed for the first time since the program began,” they said.

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An EBT sign is displayed in the window of a grocery store on October 30, 2025 in the Flatbush neighborhood of the Brooklyn borough of New York. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Lower courts sided with states in ordering full payment of SNAP benefits, prompting the Trump administration to appeal the issue to the Supreme Court for emergency intervention.

In appealing the case, Trump’s legal team argued that lower court judges exceeded their authority and urged the Supreme Court to uphold the emergency stay issued late last week by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

They cited the progress Congress has made in resolving the ongoing shutdown and added that, in their view, “the answer to this crisis does not lie in federal courts reallocating resources without legal authority.”

“The only way to end this crisis – which the Executive Branch is determined to end – is for Congress to reopen government,” they added.

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“SNAP/EBT Food Stamp Benefits Accepted” is displayed on a screen inside a Family Dollar Stores Inc. store in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., Tuesday, March 3, 2020. (Daniel Acker/Bloomberg/Getty Images)

States, for their part, have accused the Trump administration of playing politics with SNAP benefits, or food assistance that benefits about one in eight Americans.

“Any additional stay would prolong this irreparable harm and add to the chaos unleashed by the government, with lasting impacts on the administration of SNAP,” they told the Supreme Court in their own filing Tuesday morning.

“The government has offered no defensible justification for this outcome,” they added. “The administrative stay should end and no further stays should be granted.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a directive Saturday ordering states to “immediately rescind all actions taken to provide full SNAP benefits,” in accordance with the court order just 24 hours earlier, and instead award only the 65% partial SNAP payments for the month that the administration had agreed to.

Trump officials have said states that fail to comply will face harsh economic penalties, prompting an emergency intervention from U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, who agreed Monday afternoon to suspend the USDA guidance, citing confusion around the guidance.

New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin described the actions to reporters Monday as the “most heinous thing” he has seen during his tenure.

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“There are more children in New Jersey receiving SNAP than the entire population of our state’s largest city,” he said at a news conference Monday, in an effort to contextualize the number of people in the Garden State alone who receive SNAP benefits.

This is breaking news. Check back soon for updates.