Supreme Court Decides Full Snap Food Benefits Can Be Paused for Now.
America's top court has issued an urgent ruling that permits for now the Trump administration to withhold billions in funding for food benefits relied on by millions of low-income Americans.
Administration officials appealed to the Supreme Court after a federal judge ruled that the SNAP program, also known as food stamps, should be distributed in full to recipients by Friday.
The programme has been left in limbo by the ongoing federal government shutdown, with the Trump administration claiming it could only afford to partially fund it.
Friday's ruling means $4bn can be held back for now pending further legal hearings.
Programme Impact
This nutrition aid is issued by 42 million Americans - around one in eight - and requires almost $9bn a each month.
On Thursday, a federal magistrate, John McConnell, alleged the Trump administration of blocking nutrition funds "for political reasons" and said that without the aid "millions of kids are in danger of facing hunger".
The judge mandated the government to pay out the assistance in full.
Legal Background
The Thursday ruling came after that ordered the administration to dip into reserve money to at least partially fund the programme for last month.
This court battle was triggered after the USDA, which manages the food stamp program, announced payments would be halted in the fall due to the lack of funding over the budget crisis.
Prior to the high court's action, the USDA said it was working to comply with the various court orders and was making efforts to distribute the complete amount.
High Court's Move
High Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson granted the order on Friday evening, known as an administrative stay, effectively freezing the previous decision for two days while government lawyer's seek to overturn it.
The row over food aid funding has become one of the bitterest of what is now the longest government shutdown in US history.
Broader Impact
Federal employees have been without pay for more than a month and flight operations has been disrupted as Democratic and Republican lawmakers cannot reach a compromise to pass a budget.
Some states have used their own financial reserves to keep Snap payments flowing, which are worth around six dollars to recipients via electronic benefit cards which can be redeemed in grocery stores.
But some states have said they are unable to replace the money which has been cut by the federal government.
