BOSTON: A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from forcing states to “undo” measures taken to issue full SNAP food aid benefits, according to a court notice on Monday.

The move came after a federal appeals court late on Sunday allowed a judge’s order to stand that directs the administration to fully fund this month’s food aid benefits for 42 million low-income Americans.

On Saturday, the US Department of Agriculture had directed states to “undo” any steps taken to issue full SNAP benefits.

The agency warned states they could risk financial penalties if they did not comply.

Appeals court previously said reducing the aid would cause ‘widespread harm’

But a federal judge in Boston on Monday morning temporarily blocked that directive. The ruling came at the request of 25 Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia, who argued the USDA could not compel them to reverse actions they took based on a prior court order.

US District Judge Indira Talwani scheduled an additional hearing on the matter for Monday afternoon.

The tangled legal situation has left the status of the country’s main anti-hunger program uncertain as the government shutdown reached its 41st day on Monday.

The administration had previously appealed a lower court decision to the Boston-based 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals but it declined to halt a Rhode Island judge’s decision requiring the USDA to ensure Americans receive their full SNAP benefits.

However, that ruling had no immediate impact because US Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson on Friday had already placed a temporary hold on the lower court order by US District Judge John McConnell.

The administration argued that McConnell could not force the USDA to find money beyond a contingency fund in the “metaphorical couch cushions” to pay for full SNAP benefits. It blamed Congress for the crisis and said it was up to lawmakers to resolve it.

In its decision, the three-judge appeals court panel acknowledged the government’s position but sided with the lower court.

“We do not take lightly the government’s concern that money used to fund November SNAP payments will be unavailable for other important nutrition assistance programs,” US Circuit Judge Julie Rikelman wrote.

But Rikelman said the court could not find that McConnell abused his discretion, writing that a ruling for the administration would have led to “widespread harm” by “leaving tens of millions of Americans without food as winter approaches”.

SNAP benefits, which cost between $8.5 billion and $9bn per month, are paid to eligible Americans whose income is below 130 per cent of the federal poverty line.

McConnell had previously ruled that the administration was required to either use emergency funding for partial benefits or tap additional funds to pay out November’s SNAP benefits in full.

After the USDA opted to use only its $4.65bn contingency fund, McConnell on Thursday ordered it to tap a $23.35bn fund for child nutrition programs to provide the remaining $4bn needed.

Published in Dawn, November 11th, 2025