The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to immediately halt a judge’s ruling that requires full Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) November payments be made to states by Friday.
An appeals court declined to block the ruling ahead of the deadline, and the administration warned it is “untenable at every turn” and will “sow further shutdown chaos.” The new filing asks for an intervention by 9:30 p.m. EST.
“The core power of Congress is that of the purse, while the Executive is tasked with allocating limited resources across competing priorities,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in the emergency 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,” Sauer continued.
The appeal was docketed after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) had already sent a letter to regional SNAP directors indicating it was working to comply and process the payments.
