The Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration does not have to pay SNAP benefits during the government shutdown. In a late-night order on Tuesday, the Court declined to intervene in a lower court dispute over whether the federal government must continue issuing food-assistance payments while agencies remain unfunded. The decision effectively allows the administration to suspend SNAP benefits until Congress restores funding. Democratic lawmakers had argued that the administration has both the funds and the legal authority to keep the program running temporarily. The government countered that those appropriations have lapsed and that paying benefits without congressional authorization would violate federal spending laws. This may not matter for long because the final executive measures to open the government are likely to happen on Wednesday, which will restore SNAP without fixing any of the obvious loopholes that have been exploited for years by SNAP recipients. But it will matter if this becomes an issue again in February, when the government could easily shut down again now that the courts have decided the administration has no obligation to intervene. The post Supreme Court: No SNAP Payments During Shutdown appeared first on Redacted.