U.S. Vice President JD Vance speaks next to President Donald Trump during a dinner with the leaders of the C5+1 Central Asian countries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., November 6, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard

With the partial shutdown of the United States' federal government dragging on after more than a month, Democrats are applauding a judge's ruling that orders the federal government to continue paying Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits — shutdown and all.

Vice President JD Vance, meanwhile, is attacking the judge.

CNN's Aaron Blake, in a Friday, November 7 post on X, formerly Twitter, reports, "Vance on judge's ruling that admin must fully fund SNAP: 'The president and the entire administration are working on that, but we’re not going to do it under the orders of a federal judge. We're going to do it according to what we think we have to do to comply with the law.'"

The SNAP ruling came from U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell Jr., based in Rhode Island.

The federal government has been partially shut down since October 1, with GOP and Democratic lawmakers unable to reach an agreement on a spending bill.

As a result, the U.S. is seeing long lines and flight cancellations at airports. And SNAP recipients, with their benefits cut off, are turning to food banks for help.

McConnell, however, ruled that regardless of the shutdown, the government has no business cutting SNAP benefits off.