Second Harvest Food Bank President and CEO, Nancy Keil speaks about the disruption to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits during a news conference at the Second Harvest Food Bank Friday, Oct. 31, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. SNAP is the United State’s food stamp program designed to help low-income families afford groceries.

WASHINGTON − The Supreme Court late Friday said the Trump administration doesn't have to promptly pay full SNAP food benefits for now, in a last-minute − but temporary − order that leaves in limbo the 42 million Americans who rely on food stamps.

The court briefly paused a lower court's ruling requiring the administration to use a combination of contingency funds and other funds to make the full November payments to states during the federal government shutdown.

The temporary pause issued by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, known as an administrative stay, gives an appeals court more time to fully consider Trump's request.

The administration had said it could make only partial payments, not transfer another $4 billion to states by Friday evening.

But U.S. District Judge John McConnell in Rhode Island said the administration's arguments for not using funds designated for child nutrition programs to fill in the gap in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits in November were "implausible," given the child programs are projected to have funding until at least May, and Congress can replenish the funds before then.

By contrast, failing to tap into those funds to pay the full SNAP November food aid presents "the very real and immediate risk of children being deprived of their food assistance today," McConnell wrote.

The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined on Friday to immediately block that decision. The Supreme Court's order gives the appeals court more time to consider whether to pause the judge's order.

Appealing to the Supreme Court on Friday night, the Justice Department argued the funding lapse is a crisis only Congress can solve.

And unless the Supreme Court steps in, they told the justices, every beneficiary of a federal program could run into court to try to get funding, inviting a “run on the bank by way of judicial fiat.”

"The core power of Congress is that of the purse, while the Executive is tasked with allocating limited resources across competing priorities," the Justice Department said in its appeal. "But here, the court below took the current shutdown as 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."

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has told states that full SNAP benefits are on the way, but when and whether those benefits will reach the 42 million Americans who rely on them to eat remains an open question.

Food assistance is available to those making less than 130% of the federal poverty line. A single person can receive up to $298 in monthly help.

New York Attorney General Letitia James called the decision “a tragedy for the millions of Americans who rely on SNAP to feed their families.”

“It is disgraceful that the Trump administration chose to fight this in court instead of fulfilling its responsibility to the American people,” she said in a statement.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said on social media that the Justice Department "will not stop fighting, day and night, to defend and advance President Trump’s agenda."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Supreme Court: Trump administration doesn't have to promptly pay full food benefits for now

Reporting by Maureen Groppe, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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