Trump asks Supreme Court to halt order to issue full SNAP benefits
The Trump governance has filed an emergency petition with the Supreme Court seeking to quickly block a lower court order that requires the use of Section 32 Child Nutrition Funds to issue full Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. This order came after a U.S. district Judge mandated the release of full SNAP benefits during the government shutdown using funds originally intended for child nutrition. Solicitor General D.John Sauer argued that only the SNAP contingency reserve should be used for these benefits and that the court’s directive to use alternative funds is unlawful. Sauer warned that allowing the order to stand would disrupt the separation of powers, lead to judicial overreach in federal fund allocation, cause further chaos during the shutdown, and potentially undermine other critical social programs. With the government shutdown ongoing,the administration has maintained that SNAP benefits cannot be paid without proper congressional appropriation,despite court orders pushing for continued payments.
Trump asks Supreme Court to halt order to issue full SNAP benefits
The Trump administration filed an emergency petition to the Supreme Court asking it to quickly halt a lower court’s order to issue full Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits using funds intended for child nutrition.
The petition to the Supreme Court’s emergency docket came less than an hour after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit declined to halt U.S. District Judge John McConnell’s Thursday order that Section 32 Child Nutrition Funds be used to issue full SNAP benefits by Friday. Solicitor General D. John Sauer asked the high court to issue an administrative stay of the lower court’s orders by 9:30 p.m. Friday while it considers the petition.
Sauer asserted SNAP may only be funded using the SNAP contingency reserve, which would cover roughly half of the benefits for November, and that McConnell’s order to use Section 32 funds to issue full SNAP benefits is unlawful.
“That unprecedented injunction makes a mockery of the separation of powers. The core power of Congress is that of the purse, while the Executive is tasked with allocating limited resources across competing priorities,” Sauer wrote in the petition.
“But here, the court below took the current shutdown as an effective license to declare a federal bankruptcy and appoint itself the trustee, charged with picking winners and losers among those seeking some part of the limited pool of remaining federal funds,” Sauer added. “The district court’s ruling is untenable at every turn.”
Sauer warned that if the high court allowed McConnell’s order to stand, it would “sow further shutdown chaos” with groups attempting to force funding to their favored programs via court orders.
“Courts would issue unworkable and potentially conflicting injunctions, as different judges order different allocations of limited pools of money,” Sauer wrote. “District courts’ seizure of the power to allocate federal agency funds as they see fit would also invite a run on the bank by way of judicial fiat during this shutdown, as litigants race to courthouse to obtain their guarantee of federal funds before it is too late.”
Sauer urged the high court to issue its ruling quickly, noting it is currently required to use Section 32 funding to send full SNAP benefits by tonight because of McConnell’s order.
JUDGE ORDERS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION TO USE CHILD NUTRITION FUNDS TO ISSUE FULL SNAP BENEFITS
“Once those billions are out the door, there is no ready mechanism for the government to recover those funds—to the significant detriment of those other critical social programs whose budgets the district court ordered the government to raid,” Sauer wrote.
With the government shutdown now the longest in history and with no clear end in sight, the administration had warned that SNAP benefits would not be paid out for November. The announcement prompted multiple lawsuits and orders requiring the administration to use other funds to pay for SNAP. The administration has maintained that only congressionally appropriated SNAP funds may lawfully be used for the program.
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