Legal AF by MeidasTouch - SCOTUS Makes Late-Night Emergency Ruling on Trump Plan

Episode Date: November 8, 2025

In a strange twist, but in the interest of procedural fairness, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, of all people, has granted the Trump Administration a short emergency Administrative Stay blocking the payment of the remaining $3 billion in SNAP payments but only to give the lower appeals court time to fully consider whether a stay blocking the remaining payments is proper at all which should happen in the next few days. Of course, that’s cold comfort to the 42 million Americans waiting on a full food supplemental payments. Confused? Michael Popok gets beneath the headlines and under the hood with his latest hot take commentary. Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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to 42 million Americans. That could be the headline, except I get beneath it and explain exactly what's going on and why Katanji Brown Jackson issued a. temporary administrative stay, which stopped an additional $3 billion worth of SNAP payments to go to 42 million hungry people. When I explain it to you, I think you'll get it. It's not as bad as it sounds, and it does explain something about the United States Supreme Court, that even Akitanji Brown Jackson will often, for logistical purposes, issue a temporary administrative stay for hours or a few days in order to let justice be done.

I'm Michael Popock, you're on the Midas Touch Network and LegalAF. I've been following this SNAP case about the anti-hunger payments to 42 million Americans, 16 million children, and $8 billion a month payment that needed to be made as required by Judge McConnell in Rhode Island. I've been following it about every hour for the last week. And we've had all sorts of permutation. We've had two temporary restraining orders had to be issued by Judge McConnell,

the Chief Judge in Rhode Island, to force payment by Friday at 5 o'clock of the $8 billion. We had the Trump administrations and its Department of Agriculture playing fast and loose with poor people, with people below the poverty line who count on this $300 or $400 a month check in order to put food on the table and in the refrigerator for children and babies and the disabled and veterans and the handicapped. And even with those orders in place, the Trump administration effectively lied to Judge McConnell

and said if they were going to make the partial payments they were proposing using a $4.65 billion fund that they had during the shutdown, it would take weeks or months in order to make that payment. And they said they could not make the full payment because they didn't have the money, although they had it in other pots of money around the table. They just weren't willing to tap it. And Judge McConnell pulled everybody together on Thursday and said that by Friday, yesterday, at 5 p.m. full payment, $8 billion needed to be made so that every family in the SNAP program would not know hunger any longer. And what the Trump administration did next was very confusing. But I'm going to sort it out here.

They actually made, apparently, close to $5 billion of partial payments, five out of $8 billion. But then they ran to the First Circuit Court of Appeals that sits over Rhode Island and asked for an administrative stay and a stay of the temporary restraining order after Judge McConnell refused to grant the stay, an administrative stay, to give them time to appeal. So they filed with, on Friday, they made the $5 billion, but they didn't want to make the additional $3 billion for full payment, which means the difference between life and death, nutrition and malnutrition for these families. Let's be frank. We're not just talking about let's cut half the payments and see what happens to human beings. That's not an experiment I want to live by. So they went to the First Circuit and the First Circuit, I'll read it to you in a moment. The First Circuit said that the request for an administrative stay is denied.

that for various reasons, but the stay pending appeal, which is a longer-term stay, that had to be fully briefed and that that motion was going to be ruled upon quickly, but it couldn't be ruled upon in hours. They didn't like that answer. So they filed just in the last few hours late on Friday night and appealed to the United States Supreme Court in emergency appeal, in which they demanded that they be allowed to screw the poor people of America below the poverty line and not pay them their full snap anti-hunger payments. Nothing like attacking the poor as a political strategy. So that went to the United States Supreme Court.

Now, the way it works is that when you seek an administrative stay, first stop on the train, is an associate justice who's assigned to that particular circuit. And in Rhode Island, the associate justice is Katanji Brown Jackson. Now, I'm thinking at the time, this is great, she's not going to grant that stay, is she? Because she just issued earlier yesterday, she just issued a scathing dissent, just excoriating the other MAGA six members of the Supreme Court for ruling against the transgender American population. in passports and requiring them, requiring them to abide by a Trump ruling, dehumanizing them,

removing their dignity, and forcing them to have on their passport their gender at birth, notate, notated. And she just got through talking about the abuse of the emergency docket and all this. And I'm thinking, oh, that's just in the last 24 hours. I don't want to fall into the mouth of Katanji Brown Jackson right now. I doubt she'll grant the stay. But you, she granted the stay. But it's not as bad as it sounds. All kidding aside. And I'm not trying to make light of any of this. I've been fighting hard to get 42 million people what they deserve and to stop them from being hungry in my own reporting, my own honest commentary for the last week, including having the leaders of the lawsuits Guy Perryman on with me to talk about it. Later today,

I'm going to have Rob Bonta, who's going to talk about the SNAP payments as well. So, let's uh let's move for a moment into the ruling so now you have to put the two pieces of paper together which i will for you remember the first circuit ruled that they're not going to grant a temporary stay but that they're going to allow a motion for a stay pending appeal the bigger stay for the entirety of the appeal they're going to they're going to issue a decision on that motion as quickly as possible so Picking up with that, Katanji Pround Jackson writes as follows. The applicants are seeking a stay, that's the Trump administration, of two orders of the United States District Court of Rhode Island, two TROs by Judge McConnell.

These orders require the applicants to fully fund benefits for the SNAP for the month of November and distribute those funds by the end of the day on November 7th today. Now, we know, stepping out of the order for a minute, we know that Trump, the Trump administration has already issued $5 billion out of $8 billion. They just don't want to do the rest. Earlier today, Katanji Brown Jackson, Justice Jackson, says the applicants asked

the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit to stay the order pending appeal and to issue an administrative stay to facilitate its consideration of that stay motion. At 6.08 p.m., the First Circuit denied the applicant's request for administrative stay. And that's what I have here. I'll be posting that on legal.

LAF substack for you to read. So that's at 608 p.m. But stated that, quote, it intends to issue a decision on the stay pending appeal motion as quickly as possible. Given the First Circuit's representations, an administrative stay is required to facilitate the First Circuit's expeditious resolution

of the pending stay motion. It is ordered that the district court's orders are hereby administratively stayed, meaning Donald Trump and the Trump administration doesn't have to make the remaining $3 million, $3 billion in payments, pending disposition of the motion for a stay pending appeal at the First Circuit or further order of the undersigned, meaning Katanji Brown Jackson, or of the court, the Supreme Court.

The administrative stay will terminate 48 hours after the First Circuit's resolution of that motion, which the First Circuit is expected to issue with dispatch. now what does that all mean that means five out of eight billion has been paid three billion is now hung up and won't be paid until the first circuit decides if a stay pending appeal is necessary if they deny that stay then it'll go back on an emergency application to the united state supreme court on an emergency appeal see this wasn't really the shadow docket this was an administrative stay request which goes to one justice and she gave the First Circuit more time to do justice. But if it comes back up as an emergency application,

which is what Donald Trump wants before the entirety of the Supreme Court, including the MAGA-6, look for them to support Donald Trump and try to save another $3 billion, even if it means killing hungry, impoverished Americans. I'm glad you're here. I might as touch it on Legal A-F. Take a minute. Hit the free subscribe button on LegalAF substack

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