DOJ accuses federal judge of making 'mockery of the separation of powers' in SNAP appeal

The Trump administration on Friday asked a federal appeals court to block, for now, a lower court's decision that would require it to fully fund the nation's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food aid program by the end of the day. 

Lawyers for the Justice Department asked the First Circuit Court of Appeals to temporarily stay an injunction handed down one day earlier by a federal judge in Rhode Island. The appeal is the latest in an ongoing court fight over the food aid program that funds 42 million low-income Americans. 

U.S. District Judge John McConnell ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday to allocate $4 billion in alternative contingency funds as needed to fully fund the SNAP program through November, noting the urgency of the food aid and the need for distribution.

The judge also scolded the Trump administration for agreeing to fund just 65% of the SNAP benefits. "It's likely that SNAP recipients are hungry as we sit here," McConnell said Thursday shortly before issuing the new order, which gave the USDA less than 24 hours to comply.

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In their filing Friday to the First Circuit Court of Appeals, Trump's legal team argued that the lower court order "makes a mockery of the separation of powers," and accused McConnell of overstepping his powers as a federal judge.

"There is no lawful basis for an order that directs USDA to somehow find $4 billion in the metaphorical couch cushions," DOJ lawyers argued, describing his order as an "unprecedented injunction" and one that "makes a mockery of the separation of powers."

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"This is a crisis, to be sure, but it is a crisis occasioned by congressional failure, and that can only be solved by congressional action," they added. 

McConnell on Thursday also said the Trump administration had failed to comply with his original order last week, which required USDA to fund the SNAP benefits before its funds were slated to lapse on Nov. 1, the first time ever in the program's 60-year history. 

The government "did nothing to ensure that the money would be paid on Wednesday," he said.

The judge also said Trump officials failed to address a known funding distribution problem that could cause SNAP payments to be delayed for weeks or months in some states.