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[ponchi101]

OMG. A man with a sense of decency. How unusual.

We're not talking about Kennedy have a sense of decency? On this particular issue he's correct, but that's a big leap to him being a decent person.

I don't know him that well. Examples, please.
And txs

[ti-amie]

OMG. A man with a sense of decency. How unusual.

We're not talking about Kennedy have a sense of decency? On this particular issue he's correct, but that's a big leap to him being a decent person.

They're all panicking.

[skatingfan]

I don't know him that well. Examples, please.
And txs

Things like this -

[ti-amie]

Trump administration asks Supreme Court to block order on releasing SNAP benefits

A federal judge had ordered the administration to release full benefits for November. The administration said Friday it was working to release those benefits.
November 7, 2025 at 7:08 p.m. ESTToday at 7:08 p.m. EST

By Mark Berman

The Trump administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday evening to pause a judge’s order directing it to release November food assistance benefits in full, escalating a legal battle over whether federal officials will deliver the funds.

The request came after the administration said earlier Friday it was working to release the benefits to comply with the court order, suggesting that the money was going to be dispersed. But in its filing, the Justice Department said the high court’s intervention was needed to keep billions of dollars from being sent out that could not be easily recovered.

The developments came amid ongoing court fights over Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, which have been in limbo during the federal government shutdown and the Trump administration’s resistance to use other funding to foot the bill.

SNAP benefits, which are the country’s largest anti-hunger program, provide aid to about 42 million people, mostly children, the elderly and adults with disabilities. The funding holdup has left families across the country in a state of agonized uncertainty as they wait for aid.

A federal judge Thursday ordered the Trump administration to release the full benefits for November, writing that he “found that irreparable harm would occur if millions of people were forced to go without funds for food.”

In his order, U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell Jr. in Rhode Island directed the administration to make full payments by Friday by using other funds. He also admonished federal officials for opting to make partial payment, saying they knew this would only further delay getting aid to people.

“Such conduct is more than poor judgment; it is arbitrary and capricious,” wrote McConnell, who was appointed by President Barack Obama.

The Trump administration has said the lack of funds for SNAP benefits is due to “congressional failure” and argued against tapping other pools of money. In court papers, the Justice Department said the administration was declining “to raid an entirely different program” that would lead to a shortfall in funding school meals.

The Justice Department appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit, asking the judges to pause McConnell’s orders. A three-judge panel with that court declined Friday evening to temporarily stop his order but said it was still weighing a request to pause his ruling pending an appeal.

With the appeal still pending, the Agriculture Department signaled its plans to adhere to McConnell’s ruling in a notice sent to states on Friday.

The Agriculture Department was “working towards implementing November 2025 full benefit issuances in compliance” with the order and “will complete the processes necessary to make funds available” later Friday, wrote Patrick A. Penn, deputy under secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services within the department.

The Agriculture Department shared a copy of Penn’s notice with The Washington Post. The agency did not respond to follow-up questions, including whether the administration planned to continue its appeal of the order to release the full benefits.

Before the administration petitioned the Supreme Court, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services said it received notice Friday afternoon that the Agriculture Department “will fully fund November” SNAP benefits. In a statement Friday afternoon, the North Carolina agency said as it “works with federal partners to get the remainder of November processed, beneficiaries could see the additional funds” on their cards potentially by this weekend.

State officials sought to figure out Friday what to make of the evolving landscape regarding the benefits. One official called it “a rapidly shifting situation.”

A spokesperson for the Missouri Department of Social Services said that agency anticipated people in the state will start receiving their SNAP benefits by the middle of next week. The timeline will remain the same whether people are receiving partial or complete benefits, the spokesperson said.

Other officials, meanwhile, had said they were moving ahead to hand out benefits or preparing to do so. The office of Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek (D) said in a statement that at her direction, the state’s Department of Human Services had “worked through the night to issue full November benefits by Friday morning so families across the state can access the food they need.”

The plaintiffs in the court case — a group that includes nonprofits and several cities warning they will have to divert resources to support families that rely on SNAP aid — had said the Trump administration’s arguments about the funding “callously disregard the grave harm” facing millions of people without the benefits.

“For an entire week now, these families have gone without urgently needed assistance to meet their basic nutritional needs,” they wrote in a court filing Friday.

In court papers, plaintiffs in the case said granting even a brief stay of McConnell’s order could severely hurt the public.

Millions of people will go hungry without SNAP benefits, they wrote. And the problems expand outward, they continued, writing that organizations and cities trying to help fill the gap are facing staffing strains and struggling to provide resources and help in other areas.

In its appeal to the 1st Circuit, the Justice Department castigated McConnell for his order, writing that he was making “a mockery of the separation of power” by directing government officials to transfer funds from one food-security program to another.

“Courts hold neither the power to appropriate nor the power to spend,” the Justice Department wrote. “Courts are charged with enforcing the law, but the law is explicit that SNAP benefits are subject to available appropriations.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi criticized McConnell as well, writing on social media that his order was “utterly lawless” and urging the appeals court “to get courts out of the business of deciding how to triage scarce funds during a shutdown.”

McConnell, in his order, expressed incredulity at the Trump administration’s argument that it could not tap other funding sources, writing the administration was prioritizing “a hypothetical disruption in child food assistance” that could occur next May, if at all.

“It defies belief” that the administration would focus on that potential funding disruption in the future “over the very real and immediate risk of children being deprived of their food assistance today,” McConnell wrote.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... istration/

[ti-amie]

Nov. 7, 2025, 9:39 p.m. ET9 minutes ago

Tony RommEconomic policy reporter
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson has temporarily paused a lower court order that had required the Trump administration to fully fund food stamps during the government shutdown. In the order, Justice Jackson said she had issued the pause, called an administrative stay, to give the appeals court that will rule on the case more time to consider it. She wrote that she expected the appeals court to move swiftly and to issue a decision “with dispatch.”

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/11/07 ... s-shutdown

[ti-amie]

Indian IDOT employee stopped by ICE agents, questioned if he was 'aware' of NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani
Gov. JB Pritzker is speaking out about the incident, which happened Friday morning, calling it another example of President Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem “continuing to question U.S. citizens apparently based on the color of their skin.”
By Tina Sfondeles
Nov 7, 2025, 8:06pm EST

An Illinois Department of Transportation employee was stopped by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents while working on a Park Ridge construction project Friday morning — and questioned about incoming New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani before being released.

Gov. JB Pritzker is speaking out about the incident, calling it another example of President Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem “continuing to question U.S. citizens apparently based on the color of their skin.”

The employee, who is Indian and a U.S. citizen, was stopped and questioned by agents while working on the Busse Highway resurfacing project.

Three agents, wearing masks, questioned him about his immigration status - and also asked him if he had traveled to New York and if he was “aware” of the mayor-elect in New York City, the governor’s office said.

“I am appalled they would stop and question a state employee working hard on the job to help improve our state’s roads and infrastructure,” Pritzker said in a statement. “Our state employees should be able to go to work and do their jobs without masked agents targeting them for no legitimate reason.”

As federal judges in Chicago this week set limits for conditions at the Broadview facility — and for DHS’ use of force policies, federal immigration agents also led a caravan Thursday morning across Chicago’s Southwest Side, making several stops to question residents on their immigration status. The caravan was led by U.S. Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino.

Federal immigration agents on Wednesday also entered a North Center day care center and arrested a teacher before searching each of the rooms without a warrant, a local alderperson said.

Video captured two agents pulling the woman out of Rayito de Sol Spanish Immersion Early Learning Center at 2550 W. Addison St. around 7 a.m. The Department of Homeland Security identified the woman as Diana Patricia Santillana Galeano of Colombia.

Santillana Galeano, known as “Ms. Diana” to parents and children at the day care, is heard in the recording telling an agent that she has documentation, but she was still detained. “Yo tengo papeles,” she says in a video.

DHS did not immediately respond to comment about the Friday incident.

https://chicago.suntimes.com/immigratio ... an-mamdani

[ti-amie]

A clarification of why Justice Jackson issued her administrative stay.

‪

Chris Geidner‬
‪@chrisgeidner.bsky.social‬
· 1h
UPDATE: Justice Jackson temporarily blocks SNAP benefits order to allow appeals court to rule.

DOJ asked SCOTUS for a stay as USDA was in the middle of completing its process for making full payments. Jackson's order came a little past 9 p.m.

Law Dork: www.lawdork.com/p/trump-admi...

Point Blank Sandwich Hat
‪@kenwhite.bsky.social‬
This is actually a pretty standard and unremarkable move, as evidenced by Justice Jackson issuing it.

But most people won't believe that for several good reasons.
/1

/2 1. Real human beings will suffer from even a brief stay. 2. The government's position is transparently dishonest and in bad faith. 3. The Supreme Court has lost any benefit of the doubt. They have lost the mandate of the heaven that is the rule of law.

/3 I think this is likely strategy by Justice Jackson -- she likely believes this route (rather than the stay being considered by the whole court) results in the shortest stay. But few will listen to that because of reasons 1-3, and I can't really fault them.

[ponchi101]

I truly do not understand the whole SNAP thing.

[dryrunguy]

So, I am struggling to understand this too, ponchi. There have been a few times in recent years when this kind of drama happens with the U.S. Supreme Court late on a Friday. The "decisions" tend to be issued by the most junior member of the court (Brown, but not always), and then tend to be "decisions" you would have never expected from that justice. But this was still a shocking read late on a Friday.

That said, Brown is an incredibly sharp individual who possesses that unique combination of perspectives so many other Supreme Court justices simply lack--a commanding knowledge of the law and a sound understanding of how something like this impacts real people out in the real work and the realistic timeframe for making the right thing happen as quickly as possible. So in that sense, I am content to say, "Brown knows what she's doing."

That said, where I get fuzzy is the degree to which the rest of the court has to weigh in on something like this. She can't do this completely independent of the rest of the court, right? This is her just flying solo, right? This is where I get confused.

Anyway, we've seen this before, and we've seen this before with Brown where her name is attached to something that doesn't at all align with what we know about her or her convictions and she probably had to hold her nose the whole time while doing it--but it's the right thing to do given the circumstances. This isn't the first time she's been in this position. I wish I could remember the specifics of the other cases that felt like this.

[skatingfan]

I truly do not understand the whole SNAP thing.

The administration has been trying to incite a violent incident that would allow them to use the Insurrection Act.

[ti-amie]

Trump administration orders states to pause paying full SNAP benefits

The Agriculture Department also demands that states “immediately undo” any steps they have taken to send full November payments to recipients of the food assistance program, referred to as food stamps.
Updated
November 9, 2025 at 2

By Mariana Alfaro

The Trump administration over the weekend ordered states to stop distributing full food assistance benefits for November to the 42 million low-income Americans at risk of food insecurity.

A memo from the Agriculture Department’s Food and Nutrition Service tells states to “immediately undo any steps taken to issue” full payments to recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, often called food stamps.

Instead, the White House is demanding that states issue only partial payments of about 65 percent of a usual SNAP benefit.

The memo USDA issued late Saturday warns states that if they do not comply with the order, they will face consequences, including the cancellation of federal funding that states need to cover some administrative expenses.

The federal government pays for all SNAP benefits, but states administer the program to residents.

SNAP is a vital lifeline for millions of people — mostly children, the elderly and adults with disabilities — who rely on it to afford groceries. The funding holdup caused by the government shutdown has left families across the country in agonized uncertainty as they stretch budgets while waiting for aid.

On Thursday, a Rhode Island judge directed the Trump administration to release November SNAP benefits in full by Friday.

At first, the Trump administration said Friday that it was working to release the benefits to comply with the judge’s order — suggesting that the money would indeed be disbursed. At the same time, the administration appealed that decision to the Supreme Court.

Late Friday, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson temporarily blocked the Rhode Island judge’s order to allow time for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit to issue its ruling on the lower court’s order.

Some states, like Wisconsin and Maryland, had begun disbursing benefits Friday, following the Rhode Island ruling, leaving them scrambling to respond over the weekend.

In Wisconsin — where nearly 700,000 residents received their SNAP payments on Friday — Gov. Tony Evers (D) said that his state had “legally loaded benefits to cards.”

“After we did so, the Trump Administration assured Wisconsin and other states that they were actively working to implement full SNAP benefits for November and would ‘complete the processes necessary to make funds available.’ They have failed to do so to date,” Evers said in a statement Sunday.

Evers, along with several other governors and state attorneys general, are asking the appellate court to reject the administration’s effort to stop full SNAP payments. Soon after a letter from the state leaders was filed, USDA sent the states the latest memo ordering them to stop the disbursement of full SNAP benefits.

“Our administration is actively in court fighting against the Trump Administration’s efforts to yank food assistance away from Wisconsin’s kids, families, and seniors, and we are eager for the court to resolve this issue by directing the Trump Administration to comply with court orders,” Evers’s statement said.

Carl Tobias, the Williams Chair in Law at the University of Richmond’s law school, said it would not be “lawful” for USDA to claw back benefits that it had earlier provided without granting due process.

But Tobias acknowledged that the USDA memo could have a chilling effect on states’ efforts to continue providing benefits to people in November.

In his Thursday order, the Rhode Island judge, John J. McConnell Jr., admonished the Trump administration for opting to make only partial SNAP payments, saying the administration knew this would only further delay getting aid to people. He ordered the administration to tap into a $23 billion fund for school lunch and child nutrition programs to pay for full SNAP benefits in November.

USDA, however, has repeatedly refused to tap into that money, arguing that it is separate from SNAP, and that the government does not have funds because of “congressional failure” to appropriate new money. In court papers, the administration said it would not “raid an entirely different program” because it could lead to a shortfall in funding school meals.

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey (D), in a statement Sunday, said residents who have already received SNAP money on their cards “should continue to spend it on food.” Those funds, she said, were following guidelines the administration issued after the Rhode Island court decision and before the Supreme Court order.

“If President Trump wants to penalize states for preventing Americans from going hungry, we will see him in court,” Healey said.

The administration is “very carefully studying the law and trying to get as much money out the door as is legal,” Kevin Hassett, President Donald Trump’s longest-serving economic adviser, told CBS News’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday.

“We are very glad that we found a way to get a lot of the SNAP money out, but it’s really, really pushing the boundaries of the law, which is why the Supreme Court had to take that ruling from Rhode Island and put it on hold,” Hassett said. “The president’s job, and all of our jobs, is to uphold the law.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... sda-trump/

[ti-amie]

[skatingfan]

New Mexico is Red?

[ti-amie]

New Mexico is Red?

Several people made the same point you are Skating. Would you consider them purple?

[skatingfan]

Several people made the same point you are Skating. Would you consider them purple?

I think it's pretty Blue - voted for Harris, 3/3 House of Representatives, 2/2 US Senate, and every state wide office held by a Democrat.