(WASHINGTON) -- The Trump administration has asked the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to issue an emergency stay of a judge's ruling Thursday ordering the administration to fully fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program by today.
Lawyers for the Department of Justice argue that the district court ruling makes a "mockery of the separation of powers."
"This unprecedented injunction makes a mockery of the separation of powers. Courts hold neither the power to appropriate nor the power to spend. Courts are charged with enforcing the law, but the law is explicit that SNAP benefits are subject to available appropriations," the DOJ said in its filing Friday.
The circuit court has ordered the nonprofits and local governments that filed the original lawsuit to respond by noon.
The Trump administration requested that the appeals court issue a ruling by 4 p.m. ET today.
At issue is whether a federal judge can compel the government to use $4 billion from Section 32 of the Agricultural Adjustment Act Amendment of 1935 to fund November SNAP benefits.
The Trump administration argues that those funds are needed to support child nutrition programs -- known as WIC -- and that using that money to pay for SNAP would essentially "starve Peter to feed Paul."
"Indeed, if every beneficiary of a mandatory spending program could run to court and force the agency to transfer funds from elsewhere, the result would be an unworkable and conflicting plethora of injunctions that reduce the federal fisc to a giant shell game," they argued in their filing.
During a tense court hearing Thursday, Judge John J. McConnell Jr. expressed skepticism about that argument, highlighting that WIC has enough money to operate through May, while SNAP is already out of money. He accused the Trump administration of "withholding SNAP benefits for political reasons."
Last week McConnell ordered the government to use emergency funds to pay for SNAP in time for the Nov. 1 payments to be made -- but the administration, saying they had to save the additional funds for WIC, committed to only partially funding SNAP.
McConnell, in his ruling Thursday, ordered the Trump administration to fully fund SNAP for the month of November by Friday. He directly rebuked President Donald Trump for stating "his intent to defy" a court order when Trump said earlier this week that SNAP will not be funded until the government reopens from the ongoing government shutdown.
In their court filing Friday, the Trump administration said that Trump was "just stating a fact," and not using SNAP as leverage.
"The district court also accused the President of bad faith for declaring that full SNAP benefits would not resume until the government reopens. But that was just stating a fact--the appropriation has lapsed, and it is up to Congress to solve this crisis," the filing said.
The government has asked the circuit court to allow U.S. Department of Agriculture, which operates SNAP, to continue with the partial payment of SNAP and to "not compel the agency to transfer billions of dollars from another safety net program with no certainty of their replenishment."
McConnell himself denied a request from the government to stay his own decision, saying, "The request for a stay of this decision, either a stay or an administration stay, is denied. People have gone without for too long. Not making payments to them for even another day is simply unacceptable."
"People have gone without for too long, not making payments to them for even another day is simply unacceptable," the judge said.
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