The Supreme Court issued a ruling blocking an order from a federal judge that required the Trump administration to pay full Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for November.
The decision from the Supreme Court came after the Trump administration requested that U.S. District Judge John McConnell’s order that the administration dish out full SNAP benefits by Friday be blocked, according to the Associated Press.
Per the outlet:
A judge had given the Republican administration until Friday to make the payments through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. But the administration asked the appeals court to suspend any court orders requiring it to spend more money than is available in a contingency fund, and instead allow it to continue with planned partial SNAP payments for the month.
While Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson issued a temporary pause of McConnell’s order in order “to give an appeals court more time to weigh 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) had previously issued a memo that it would be giving out full SNAP benefits for the month of November. In the memo, the USDA stated that the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) was “working towards implementing November 2025 full benefit issues” in order to comply with a court order that a full payment of SNAP benefits be made by Friday.
The memo also noted that the FNS would be completing processes “later today” as part of an effort to ensure that funds for SNAP were available.
“FNS is working towards implementing November 2025 full benefit issuances in compliance with the November 6, 2025, order from the District Court of Rhode Island,” the memo said. “Later today, FNS will complete the process necessary to make funds available to support your subsequent transmittal of full issuance files to your EBT processor.”
The Supreme Court’s order comes as roughly 42 million SNAP recipients did not receive their benefits at the beginning of the month in response to the government shutdown — which has stretched into 38 days.
NPR reported that in response to McConnell’s decision, several states – such as Pennsylvania, Oregon and California – revealed that “they would be issuing full SNAP benefits” to recipients.
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