The decision follows a Senate vote to reopen the government, but legal issues have created uncertainty for millions of people in need of food assistance.
Published November 12, 2025
The U.S. Supreme Court has extended an earlier order allowing President Donald Trump to withhold food aid to tens of millions of people in the United States amid the government shutdown.
In a ruling Tuesday, the Supreme Court extended a previous moratorium granted to the Trump administration after a lower court ordered the government to pay nearly $4 billion in November food benefits.
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Advocates say withholding funds could have a dire impact on people who rely on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food benefits, but the issue may become moot as the shutdown appears to be nearing an end.
The Supreme Court’s decision came a day after the Senate approved the compromise bill on Monday. The bill would end the longest government shutdown in U.S. history and break a weeks-long impasse that disrupted food benefits for millions, left hundreds of thousands of federal workers without pay, and disrupted air traffic due to flight cancellations due to a shortage of air traffic controllers.
The battle over SNAP benefits highlights the Trump administration’s aggressive efforts to cut government jobs and curtail access to a program it has criticized in the name of the government shutdown.
While it’s common for some benefits and programs to face delays and other problems during government shutdowns, food benefits were completely discontinued in early November for the first time in the program’s 60-year history.
The decision sparked a series of legal challenges, with repeated rulings over several weeks, leaving people dependent on food aid at a loss.
A judge ruled last week that the government should cover all November benefits, but the administration challenged the decision. The Supreme Court suspended the order, but that suspension was scheduled to expire on Thursday.
