Everyone knew that this case would eventually end up in front of the Supreme Court. But it’s not over yet.

As Nina wrote yesterday, Rhode Island federal district court Judge John McConnell ordered the USDA to “fully fund” SNAP by Friday. With what money? Who cares, the judge said!

Reading his directive from the bench after a short but tense hearing, Judge McConnell sharply criticized the administration for ignoring his original order last week to quickly restart payments for SNAP, or food stamps. He attributed the delay, in part, to an attempt by President Trump and his aides to disrupt the program “for political reasons.”

At one point, Judge McConnell pointed to comments by Mr. Trump, who had threatened this week to halt all food stamp payments until the end of the shutdown. While the White House later tried to walk back those remarks, the judge still saw the president’s ultimatum as evidence he had failed to comply with court instructions.

“This should never happen in America,” the judge said, as he warned that millions of poor families could go hungry in the absence of reliable federal aid. He gave the government until Friday to make the SNAP payments.

Shortly after the judge’s first directive, the Trump administration announced it would provide partial payments under SNAP this month. But many local officials quickly objected to what they saw as a set of punitive and needlessly complex rules, warning that the work to implement them could delay food stamp payments for weeks.

Many families stood to receive nothing this month because of the way that the Agriculture Department had required states to calculate benefits. While the agency admitted late Wednesday that it had made a mistake, and updated its policies, the change only further bogged down the food stamp program.

That prompted local leaders to return to court this week, seeking to force the government to tap additional leftover funds so that it could pay SNAP benefits in full and without delay. Kristin Bateman, a lawyer representing cities and nonprofits that had sued, accused the administration of trying to “leverage people’s hunger to gain partisan political advantage.”

The Democrats could solve this instantly by voting for cloture to allow a vote on the “clean” continuing resolution, but as the Squad grandma Representative Pramila Jayapal said, the Senate Democrats are “holding up” in order to get what they want – which is Obamacare subsidies.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal says Senate Democrats will continue to keep the government shut down:

JAYAPAL: "Senate Democrats have been very strong in holding up." pic.twitter.com/ZMCS8ojBI9

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) November 7, 2025

Chuck Schumer tried tying an extention of the subsidies for a year to the CR on Friday, which the Senate Republicans promptly dismissed. Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin then put forward the “Shutdown Fairness Act” to pay federal workers and the military, which failed to get 60 votes (but did get three Democrat votes). At that point, Majority Leader John Thune scheduled a vote for Saturday afternoon – which means the senators are going nowhere this weekend. It also means that the desired SNAP benefits will not be appearing via the CR, so Judge McConnell is telling the federal government that they have to pay up.

The Trump administration appealed the decision (even as the USDA sent out a memo saying that they were working on making the payment by the Friday deadline) to the First Circuit Court of Appeals. They denied the administration’s request to block Judge McConnell’s order. So the Trump administration went up the ladder to the Supreme Court. And the Supreme Court granted an administrative stay on Friday night that stopped the USDA from having to find the money to make the SNAP payments.

And the best part is which Supreme Court justice signed the stay.

BREAKING: Supreme Court Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson temporarily stays a Rhode Island court order that would’ve required the Trump administration to pay out November SNAP benefits, saying the pause is needed to allow the First Circuit to review the order. #SCOTUS pic.twitter.com/OgkXCMfYUD

— Katie Buehler (@bykatiebuehler) November 8, 2025

Yes, you are reading that right. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson signed it.

In an order issued after 9 p.m. Friday, Jackson granted the Trump administration’s request for relief from a lower court order that would have required officials to tap into a separate nutrition account at USDA to deliver the usual SNAP payments for November.

Jackson’s move came after the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals declined to grant the administration an immediate reprieve from the district court judge’s order.

However, Jackson, a Biden appointee, noted that the appeals court indicated it planned to release a further ruling “as quickly as possible” and she said lifting the deadline for now would “facilitate” the appeals court’s next action, which she said she expected “with dispatch.”

The administration’s emergency appeal was routed to Jackson because she is assigned to oversee urgent matters arising from the 1st Circuit. She will likely refer the issue to the full court at some juncture, but her order Friday gave no indication she has yet done so.

The Supreme Court’s Friday night ruling is the latest in a legal back-and-forth this week. States, cities and nonprofits first sued demanding officials dip into a contingency fund for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which the Trump administration maintained was reserved for emergencies like natural disasters. After two separate court orders, officials agreed to use the fund to pay partial November benefits, a plan that state and federal officials said could take weeks in some places.

Eventually, the Supreme Court is going to end up with this case, because despite how the First Circuit Court of Appeals ends up ruling, either party can appeal. Maybe by the time that happens, the entire case will be moot because the government will be open… but as of right now, the USDA has a reprieve for the weekend.

However, social media is big mad… and Justice Jackson is getting blamed.

The Judge who ruled in Trump's favor to appeal the federal judge's(John McConnell)order to pay snap benefits in full was Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson…Good Ole Sistah Guhl politics..Don't say I didn't warn y'all about her..#Listentomenowbelievemelateron pic.twitter.com/qt3RzYw9bp

— BIG MALCOLM X PLAY COUSIN (@Omowale99949437) November 8, 2025

And that was one of the nicer ones. There was lots of other comments questioning Jackson’s stay by people who don’t realize how the Supreme Court works. (No one tell them, it’s more fun this way.)

The Trump administration needs the First Circuit Court of Appeals, or the Supreme Court, to actually read the law and determine WHERE this money is supposed to come from if the government stays shut down. One federal judge in Rhode Island (or anywhere else) should not have the ability to order the executive branch to do anything – but this is a message that the lower court judges are failing to get, despite what the Supreme Court has warned them about in the past. If the message is not sent loud and clear, then we are going to continue to watch the lower courts make imperial rulings – and the Supreme Court emergency docket is going to remain full with the appeals.

Featured image: Mark Thomas via Pixabay, cropped, Pixabay license