A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to make a payment to fully fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for the month of November by Friday.
«People have gone without for too long, not making payments to them for even another day is simply unacceptable,» said U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell Jr.
Judge McConnell directly rebuked President Donald Trump for stating «his intent to defy» a court order by saying earlier this week that SNAP will not be funded until the government reopens from the ongoing government shutdown.
«In fact, the day before the compliance was ordered, the president stated his intent to defy the court order when he said, ‘SNAP payments will be given only when the government opens,'» the judge said.
McConnell last Friday ordered the government to use emergency funds to pay for SNAP in time for the Nov. 1 payments to be made — but the administration committed to only partially funding the program, saying they had to save the additional funds for child nutrition programs.
DOJ lawyers, in a court filing late Thursday, said they intend to appeal Thursday’s order, as well as McConnell’s order from last week requiring SNAP be funded.
Vice President JD Vance responded to the ruling on Thursday, saying, «It’s an absurd ruling, because you have a federal judge effectively telling us what we have to do in the midst of a Democrat government shutdown.»
«In the midst of a shutdown, we can’t have a federal court telling the president how he has to triage the situation,” Vance added, placing blame on the Democrats for the shutdown.
McConnell, in Thursday’s order, criticized the Trump administration for only making a partial payment when it had additional emergency funds and knew the payments would not be delivered in time to comply with his court order.
«Without SNAP funding for the month of November, 16 million children are immediately at risk of going hungry,» said Judge McConnell. «Children are immediately at risk of going hungry. This should never happen in America.»
President Donald Trump speaks to the America Business Forum Miami, Nov. 5, 2025, in Miami.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
After the Trump administration earlier this week committed to paying out 65% of the typical SNAP amount by tapping into emergency funds, a group of nonprofits and local governments argued that partially funding SNAP was insufficient to comply with the McConnell’s order.
«Given Congress’s failure to appropriate sufficient funds for November SNAP benefits and USDA’s adherence to both the statute and its own regulations regarding partial benefits, it cannot be arbitrary and capricious for USDA to decline to raid an entirely different program, to the tune of billions of dollars, in the mere hope that Congress will fix the ensuing deficit through the general appropriations process,» DOJ lawyers responded in a court filing Wednesday.
McConnell originally gave the Trump administration a choice between making a full payment by Monday or a partial payment by Wednesday, saying the government was required to «expeditiously eliminate» any potential delays to make sure SNAP benefits would continue. Because they failed to do so — acknowledging in their own court papers that the payments could take weeks or months — the Trump administration did not comply with the court’s temporary restraining order, the judge ruled.
«It is clear to the court that the administration did not comply with this Court’s oral order of 10/31/25, or its written order of November 1, 2025,» McConnell said in Thurday’s order. «The court was clear that the administration had to either make the full payment by this past Monday, or it must ‘expeditiously resolve the administrative and clerical burdens’ it described in its papers, but under no circumstances shall the partial payments be made later than Wednesday, November 5, 2025. The record is clear that the administration did neither.»
«The government had an obligation in following the order to make the full payment so that people everywhere throughout the country would get their SNAP benefits immediately,» the judge said. «We’ve now gone six days without needed food to the 42 million, 16 million children. Irreparable harm. That’s what the court’s temporary restraining order attempted to resolve.»
Judge McConnell also directly criticized Trump for declaring a «intent to defy» the court’s order by stating that SNAP payments would not be funded until the government reopens.
A Justice Department lawyer argued that any delay in payments should be blamed on the states that administer programs, not the federal government, which he said completed a partial payment.
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«Your Honor, the government complied with the court’s order,» said DOJ lawyer Tyler Becker. «We stated on Monday night, when we filed with the court, that … we resolved all of the burdens that the government is responsible for under the regulations and under the statute.»
Kristin Bateman, an attorney for the plaintiffs, argued that the Trump administration was deliberately flouting the court’s order to gain political leverage. While the Trump administration argued it was reserving additional emergency funds for child nutrition programs, she called the claim «facially implausible» because the government has enough money to pay for child nutrition programs through June.
«[They] have not explained why they would choose to let 42 million Americans, including 16 million children, go hungry now, in order to guard against the extreme outside chance that come June, there won’t be enough money to fund child nutrition programs,» she said. «What defendants are really trying to do is to leverage people’s hunger to gain partisan political advantage in the shutdown fight,» she said.
McConnell appeared to agree, rebuking administration officials and Trump himself for «withholding SNAP benefits for political reasons.»
He said statements by Trump and other top officials «who admit to withholding full SNAP benefits for political reasons» directly undermine the argument that the government was saving emergency funds to pay for child nutrition programs.
McConnell said the government’s argument that it did not want to tap into emergency funds in order to protect child nutrition programs was implausible, and accused the Trump administration of » erroneously and intentionally» conflating the funding. He highlighted that the child nutrition programs are currently funded through at least May, while SNAP has already run out of money.
«Contrary to the defendant’s argument, 29 million children are not at risk of going hungry,» he said. «Transferring approximately $4 billion to fully fund November SNAP benefits would still leave $19.35 billion in Section 32 funds, enough to fully fund child nutrition programs through May and beyond.»
The judge McConnell faulted the Trump administration for doing «nothing» to alleviate the delays associated with a partial payment.
«USDA cannot now cry that it cannot get timely payments to beneficiaries for weeks or months because states are not prepared to make partial payments,» he said, referring to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which operates SNAP. «USDA arbitrarily and capriciously created this problem by ignoring the congressional mandate for contingency funds and failing to timely notify the states.»
The judge said the Trump administration was causing «irreparable harm» by not ensuring that millions of Americans get critical assistance.
«To be clear, irreparable harm means harm to families, elderly, children and others that cannot be undone. The evidence shows that people will go hungry, food pantries will be overburdened, and needless suffering will occur,» he said.
Judge McConnell became one of the first federal district court judges in Trump’s second term to block a Trump executive action when earlier this year he issued an injunction against an Office of Management and Budget memo ordering an across-the-board freeze on all government spending. The memo was later rescinded by the administration.
McConnell, in rare public remarks for a federal judge, said recently that he has had six credible death threats directed at him in the wake of that episode.
