Key Points:
- US Supreme Court blocks full food stamp benefits temporarily
- Trump administration requests delay in enforcing lower court order
- Arizona may have to refund excess benefits if Supreme Court rules otherwise
By Howard Fischer | Arizona Capitol Times
Food stamp recipients will have to wait until Nov. 13 — if not later — to know whether the U.S. Supreme Court believes they’re entitled to their full November benefits.
In a brief order, the U.S. Supreme Court acceded to a request by the Trump administration to at least temporarily block enforcement of an order by a lower court judge to fund the full November allotment for each of the 42 million Americans who qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP.
That administrative “stay” runs only through 11:59 p.m. on Nov. 13.
But the justices gave no indication of how they are leaning on the underlying question of how much authority a federal court judge has to tell the USDA how to spend its money — or what that might mean to food stamp recipients.
All this relates to the claim by the Trump administration that the government shutdown left the USDA with no money— and no authority — to make November payments.
