SCOTUS Sides With Trump on SNAP Funding Amid Shutdown Showdown
The Supreme Court delivered a key win to President Donald Trump late Friday night, issuing a temporary stay that blocks a lower court order requiring his administration to fully fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) during the ongoing government shutdown.
The high court’s ruling buys the Trump administration 48 hours of breathing room, after the Department of Justice warned it would be impossible to come up with an estimated $4 billion in emergency SNAP funding without congressional approval. The administration had already tapped over $5 billion in contingency reserves to partially fund November benefits.
Liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, acting as the circuit justice, granted the emergency stay just hours before the administration would have been forced to act on the lower court’s order.
In its filing, the DOJ placed the blame squarely on Congress, noting that the executive branch had exhausted all available SNAP funds and could not legally redirect money from unrelated agencies to make up the shortfall. “Such a funding lapse is a crisis. But it is a crisis occasioned by congressional failure,” the government’s emergency request stated.
The case reflects growing tension between branches of government during the longest shutdown in U.S. history, which has now stretched well past the one-month mark. SNAP payments help feed over 42 million Americans each month. Without a long-term funding resolution, tens of millions could see their benefits reduced or delayed.
“The court below took the current shutdown as effective license to declare a federal bankruptcy and appoint itself the trustee,” the DOJ wrote. “But only Congress holds the power of the purse.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi praised the ruling, writing on X: “The Supreme Court just granted our administrative stay in this case. Our attorneys will not stop fighting, day and night, to defend and advance President Trump’s agenda.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has also weighed in, placing blame on Senate Democrats for repeated votes against clean continuing resolutions. “Senate Democrats have voted 14 times against reopening the government,” a message on the USDA homepage reads. “This compromises not only SNAP, but farm programs, food inspection, animal and plant disease protection, rural development, and protecting federal lands.”
The USDA further accused Senate Democrats of leveraging the shutdown for unrelated demands, including “healthcare for illegals, gender mutilation, and other unknown ‘leverage’ points.”
Senate Democrats have thus far refused to support a continuing resolution unless it includes an extension of expiring Obamacare subsidies. Republicans say those demands are unrelated to basic government operations and accuse Democrats of holding American families hostage over ideological priorities.
With the Supreme Court’s stay in effect for 48 hours, the battle over food stamps — and the broader shutdown fight — now shifts back to Capitol Hill, where lawmakers face growing pressure to resolve the impasse.