U.S. District Court Judge John J. McConnell Jr. from the District of Rhode Island ordered the Trump administration to make full Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) payments for November to states by Friday.
McConnell's Thursday ruling came after administration officials said that partial payments would be sent out in November at an undetermined time.
"It is clear to the court that the administration did not comply with this court's oral order," the judge said of a Nov. 1 ruling. "The court was clear that the administration had to either make the full payment by this past Monday, or it must, quote, 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."
McConnell noted that the Trump administration was causing "irreparable harm" to hungry Americans.
"USDA arbitrarily and capriciously created this problem by ignoring the congressional mandate for contingency funds and failing to timely notify the states," he explained. "They knew that there would be a long delay in paying partial SNAP payments and failed to consider the harms individuals who rely on those benefits would suffer."
The Trump administration also made the "erroneously claim" that certain other funds could not be used for the SNAP program, McConnell observed.
"There is no statute prohibiting USDA from using the funding for SNAP," he said. "A rational premise on such legal, a rationale premised on such legal errors must be set aside as arbitrary and capricious."
"More importantly, without SNAP funding for the month of November, 16 million children are immediately at risk of going hungry," the judge continued. "This should never happen in America. In fact, it's likely that SNAP recipients are hungry as we sit here."
"The defendants are ordered to make the full payment to the states due for November's snap benefits by tomorrow, Friday, November 7, 2025. The request for a stay of this decision, either a stay or an administrative stay, is denied."
McConnell concluded by noting that "people have gone without for too long."
"Not making payments to them for even another day is simply unacceptable," he said.
