Washington, United States — The U.S. Supreme Court has temporarily allowed the Trump administration to withhold $4 billion in food aid, freezing a lower court order that required full Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) payments.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s late Friday ruling gives the government two days to pursue an appeal.
The decision follows a Rhode Island judge’s order directing full payments and accusing the administration of using food aid “for political reasons.”
About 42 million Americans rely on SNAP, which costs nearly $9 billion a month. The program’s funding has been caught in the federal government shutdown, now the longest in U.S. history.