Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson issued an administrative stay late Friday, temporarily blocking a Rhode Island judge’s order that directed the Trump administration to fully fund November SNAP benefits during the ongoing government shutdown. The pause, which lasts until 48 hours after the First Circuit acts on a pending stay request, leaves states weighing next steps while partial payments continue for a program that serves about 42 million people.
The short order from Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who handles emergency matters from the First Circuit, maintains the status quo while an appeal proceeds. It halts—at least for now—a lower-court directive requiring the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to immediately disburse full Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for November. States that had already begun issuing full benefits Friday raced to adjust, while others awaited clarity.
The administrative stay remains in effect until 48 hours after the First Circuit rules on the government’s request for a longer pause, allowing time for further Supreme Court review if needed. The ruling does not decide the merits of the dispute and does not bar the administration from continuing partial payments it had already initiated.
The lower-court order came from U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell Jr. in Providence, who criticized the administration’s plan to deliver reduced benefits and warned of “irreparable harm” if full payments were not made. In a separate proceeding in Massachusetts, a coalition of Democratic-led states—including New York—won a ruling directing the federal government to use available funds to prevent a lapse, though the details and timelines differed from the Rhode Island case.
The November funding crunch followed the lapse of regular appropriations on November 1, more than five weeks into the shutdown. USDA said it would tap roughly $5.25 billion in contingency reserves to cover part of November’s costs—about 65% of typical maximum benefits, by some estimates—leaving a multibillion-dollar shortfall for full funding. Plaintiffs and several judges pointed to a larger, tariff-funded child-nutrition account (commonly known as Section 32) as a lawful bridge for the remaining gap; the administration countered that diverting those dollars would undermine other nutrition programs and that only Congress can appropriate the full amount.
Judge McConnell cited recent presidential posts as evidence of political motive, noting one message stating SNAP benefits “will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up [the] government,” and another saying it would “BE MY HONOR” to provide funding if courts clarified the administration’s authority. The administration’s legal filings emphasized separation-of-powers concerns and warned that once billions are released, they cannot be recouped.
Friday’s Supreme Court action arrived after a day of scrambled implementation. Several states issued full benefits before the pause took effect; others planned to do so over the weekend or continued with partial payments. USDA has said Senate Democrats repeatedly rejected a GOP stopgap funding bill—an assertion reflected on agency communications and echoed by administration officials—while opponents argue the administration could lawfully use contingency and related funds to avert any lapse.
What happens next rests largely with the First Circuit and Congress. The administrative stay preserves partial payments for now, but the underlying question—how to lawfully cover the full cost of November benefits during the shutdown—remains unresolved.
