SCOTUS Makes Late-Night Emergency Ruling on Trump Plan

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2:15Michael Popok:At first blush, it seems shocking. Ketanji Brown Jackson issued an administrative stay to stop full snap anti-hunger payments to 42 million Americans. That could be the headline, except I get beneath it and explain exactly what's going on and why a Ketanji 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 a Ketanji 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.

3:04Michael Popok:I'm Michael Popak. You're on the Midas Touch Network and Legal AF. 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 permutations. 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 five o 'clock of the$8 billion. We had the Trump administration's 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 the children and babies and the disabled and veterans and the handicapped.

4:01Michael Popok: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.

4:49Michael Popok: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 eight 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.

5:36Michael Popok: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, and 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 an 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.

6:34Michael Popok: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 Ketanji 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, the MAGA six members of the Supreme Court for ruling against the transgender American population in passports and 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 notated.

7:36Michael Popok: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 Ketanji Brown-Jackson right now. I doubt she'll grant the stay. But 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.

8:13Michael Popok:Later today, I'm going to have Rob Bonta, who's going to talk about the SNAP payments as well. So 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 issue a decision on that motion as quickly as possible. So picking up with that, Ketanji Brown-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.

9:05Michael Popok: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 the Trump administration has already issued$5 billion out of$8 billion. They just don't want to do the rest. Earlier today, Ketanji 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.

9:41Michael Popok: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 AF Substack for you to read. So that's at 6.08 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 billion in payments.

10:25Michael Popok:Pending disposition of the motion for a stay pending appeal at the First Circuit or further order of the undersigned, meaning Ketanji 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$5 out of$8 billion has been paid, $3 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 States Supreme Court on an emergency appeal.

11:11Michael Popok: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 AF. Take a minute. Hit the free subscribe button on Legal AF Substack. And come over to Legal AF, the YouTube channel as well.

11:50Michael Popok:We're marching towards 1 million subscribers. We already crossed 920, 925 ,000. With your help, go check. We'll cross that barrier before Thanksgiving. So until my next report, I'm Michael Popak. Can't get your fill of Legal AF? Me neither. That's why we formed the Legal AF Substack. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, come over to the Substack. You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do call, wait for it, Morning AF. What else? All the other contributors from Legal AF are there as well.

12:26Michael Popok:We got some new reporting. We got interviews. We got ad-free versions of the podcast and hot takes. Where? Legal AF on Substack. Come over now to free subscribe. Finance lead just opened the credit card statement, a charge she can't trace. No receipt. That's how most business travel gets managed. Not with Engine. Engine makes it easy to control spend at the swipe, get real-time visibility, and force spend policy before, not after. 30 ,000 businesses travel with Engine. You can too. Teams travel spend. Managed. All for free. Sign up at engine.com slash control. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile.

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