MARTINEZ — After the Trump administration refused to pay for SNAP during the government shutdown — an unprecedented move to cut a half-century-old food assistance program that has helped one in eight people in the U.S. pay for groceries — a federal judge ordered him to do so last week. That kicked off a back and forth that by Friday night had drawn in the Supreme Court, with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson pausing a lower-court order to fully fund the program — and leaving payments to 42 million Americans in limbo.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as CalFresh in California, is a critical lifeline that helps 5.5 million low-income residents in this state pay for groceries. But those benefits, which can be up to $785 per month for a family of three, expired Nov. 1 when the

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