(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration has asked the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to issue an emergency stay of a judge’s ruling Thursday ordering the administration to fully fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program by today.
Lawyers for the Department of Justice argue that the district court ruling makes a “mockery of the separation of powers.”
“This unprecedented injunction makes a mockery of the separation of powers. Courts hold neither the power to appropriate nor the power to spend. Courts are charged with enforcing the law, but the law is explicit that SNAP benefits are subject to available appropriations,” the DOJ said in its filing.
U.S. District Judge John McConnell, in his ruling Thursday, ordered the Trump administration to fully fund SNAP for the month of November by Friday.
Last week McConnell 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.
McConnell, in his Thursday ruling ordering SNAP to be fully funded, 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.
“People have gone without for too long, not making payments to them for even another day is simply unacceptable,” the judge said.
The government has asked the circuit court to allow U.S. Department of Agriculture, which operates SNAP, to continue with the partial payment of SNAP and to “not compel the agency to transfer billions of dollars from another safety net program with no certainty of their replenishment.”
McConnell hemself denied a request from the government to stay his own decision, saying, “The request for a stay of this decision, either a stay or an administration stay, is denied. People have gone without for too long. Not making payments to them for even another day is simply unacceptable.”
The judge, in his order Thursday, directly rebuked President Donald Trump for stating “his intent to defy” a court order when Trump said earlier this week that SNAP will not be funded until the government reopens from the ongoing government shutdown.
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