The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday allowed President Donald Trump's administration to withhold for now about $4 billion needed to fully fund a food aid program for 42 million low-income Americans this month amid the federal government shutdown.
The court's action, known as an administrative stay, gives a lower court additional time to consider the administration's formal request to only partially fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP or food stamps, for November. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who issued the stay, set it to expire in two days.
The administration had filed an emergency request hours earlier asking the justices to put on hold a Rhode Island-based judge's order that gave the administration until Friday to fully fund the program, which costs $8.5 billion to $9 billion per month.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.