Trump Hit with Knockout Ruling and Runs to Supreme Court

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2:10Michael Popok:In developing news, Donald Trump's not done trying to exploit the poor and the hungry. Having been forced by a federal judge to lay out today$5 billion for snap anti-hunger payments for the month of November, he doesn't want to scrape up the other$3 billion from a fund that holds$23 million that he could use to make sure that people don't starve to death. And instead of trying to find a way to pay the$3 billion, he's instead wasted time by going to the United States Supreme Court this evening, just in the last hour, and demanded that the United States Supreme Court grant him an administrative stay so he doesn't have to go find the extra$3 billion to make the full snap payment to the poor in America, to the children and babies and disabled and veterans who are below the poverty line.

3:01Michael Popok:He'd rather go have his solicitor general go beg the Supreme Court for relief by 930 this evening, Eastern Time, so he doesn't have to go find the money. It's all one big fat lie. There's no other way to put it. The Trump administration lied to Judge McConnell in Rhode Island and said he would not be able to find the money. He wouldn't be able to make partial payment even of the four and a half or five billion dollars because it was too complicated logistically. It would take weeks or months. They did it overnight. They did it in hours. That which they told the judge they couldn't do. They had to make partial payment.

3:38Michael Popok:And if they were going to make partial payment, it would delay things months. They did in hours. That's a lie. And that's the entire premise of the United States Supreme Court. I'm Michael Popak. You're on the Midas Touch Network. Fast moving story here. Here's how we got here. Judge McConnell issued a second temporary restraining order yesterday. ordering that by today at five o 'clock,$8 billion full snap anti-poverty, anti-hunger payments be made to 42 million Americans, including 16 million children, to make sure they don't starve. Seems like a good thing. Seems like exploiting the poor and the impoverished and the hungry for political gain is probably makes bad political sense, even to Donald Trump.

4:24Michael Popok:But no, because he's depraved, because he's inhumane, he decided to continue to fight. Now, I reported just recently that after Judge McConnell made that ruling, even though the Trump administration took an appeal to the First Circuit Court of Appeals and begged the First Circuit for a stay so they wouldn't have to make payments, they didn't get that stay. And they made at least$5 billion worth of payments. Hooray. At least people are getting five-eighths of what they're entitled to, of what they need in order to survive. Their October payment gone. November payment, which is provided usually on an electronic card, is now ready to replenish their refrigerator.

5:03Michael Popok:And when they lost at the First Circuit in the last several hours, they then ran to the United States Supreme Court. Let me read to you from the First Circuit, which denied the order in a one-page order, which I'll post on Legal AF Substack. It says, this case was brought by cities, unions, nonprofits, and a retailer challenging the government defendant's suspension of benefits under SNAP during the ongoing lapse in congressional appropriations. It says that in the November 6th order, the district court, meaning Judge McConnell, granted the motion to enforce its October 31 order, concluding that the government had failed to either fully fund SNAP for November or to resolve administrative and clerical burdens such that partial payments would be made.

5:51Michael Popok:Again, they paid it in hours electronically. It's not hard to figure out how to make partial payment and pay it electronically. period. So that was a lie that they made. It's also a lie that they didn't have the full money to pay the$8 billion, the full payment, averaging$350 per family, because there's a$23 million fund for child nutrition that only needs$3 million a month. So taking$3 million from$23 million, or in this case, yeah, to make the full payment is not going to leave the child nutrition fund bereft of its funding. The government filed a notice of appeal and moved to stay here. We note that the stay in the briefing to us, the government has not disputed that it may under 2257 use the Section 32 funds to cover the provision of SNAP benefits for the month of November.

6:44Michael Popok:In other words, they did not deny that they could take the money. They just don't want to take the money out of one fund and fully fund SNAP. Because the November 6 orders provided the same relief, the government would need to establish that it is entitled to a stay of both orders in order to receive the relief that a request here. The request for administrative stay is denied. That was the first. An hour later, 13 pages later, they got these briefs ready. Look, I said at the top of the day in my beginning briefing to our audience about this case, that their goal, Trump's goal, was to get a stay, if he couldn't get a stay from Judge McConnell, and he couldn't get a stay today from the First Circuit to run to the United States Supreme Court on an emergency shadow docket where he has a winning streak of 86 percent and convince them that this was a unilateral decision by a single federal judge and therefore unfunding and they should block it under a long line of cases that the Supreme Court has established in the last year about funding.

7:47Michael Popok:I knew they were trying to get today to the Supreme Court. And now they've given the Supreme Court just an hour and a half or so. Here's what John Sauer says. Instead of feeding the hungry, instead of feeding the poor, those that have gone without for long enough, this is what the Trump administration decided to do. While Donald Trump was down in Miami at some business conference with a bunch of bigwigs, including Jeff Bezos, bragging about how great the economy is at the moment, split screen that And he's trying to screw 42 million Americans out of anti-starvation payments. And Donald Trump thinks we don't notice this.

8:29Michael Popok:What do you think election night in America was? It was that we noticed. We noticed the golden ballroom. We noticed the government shutdown while you build marble bathrooms, while you fly around the world, while you spend hundreds of millions of dollars on your golf game. here's what john sower donald trump's solicitor general says in his request that they not be required to fund the additional four billion or so necessary for full payment they want to just pay the five billion or the you know they don't want to top it up to the full eight they said that instead a single district judge has imposed a different solution after 5 p.m last night he He ordered the Department of Agriculture to cover the SNAP shortfall by transferring billions of dollars that were appropriated for a different critical food security program, such as the National School Lunch Program, which is under which is overfunded.

9:26Michael Popok:That unprecedented injunction makes a mockery of the separation of powers. The core power of Congress is that of the purse, while the executive is tasked with allocating limited resources across competing priorities. Really, the power of the purse is Congress. The same guy just told the United States Supreme Court on Wednesday that a president has the power to tax and tariff, which is a core constitutional function of Congress. Glad to see they remember the separation of powers because they didn't seem to remember it on Wednesday. here the court below took the current shutdown as effective license to declare a federal bankruptcy and appoint himself the trustee a trustee picking winners and losers among those seeking some sort of limited funds of remain i can't even believe they write this crap this is such this i'm sorry this is such legal nonsense page three sower says on behalf of trump if allowed to stand this decision will metastasize and so further shut down chaos.

10:28Michael Popok:Every beneficiary of a federal program could run into court, point to an agency's general discretion to prioritize funding, and claim that failing to prioritize their chosen program was arbitrary and capricious. Courts would issue unworkable and potentially conflicting injunctions as different judges order different allocations. That hasn't happened here. There's one judge, Judge McConnell, McConnell with one allocation. Page four. This is the bailout. This court's intervention is urgently needed to comply with yesterday's abrupt TRO. The government must transfer billions of dollars to SNAP and send that money to the states by tonight.

11:04Michael Popok:Once those billions are out the door, there's no ready mechanism for the government to recover those funds. In the immediate term, an administrative stay is warranted so that the court can review the application. The First Circuit hasn't even reviewed the application. And then, of course, citing a series of case law from over the summer in which federal funds have been allowed to be cut off by the Supreme Court. Look, I get why Donald Trump wants to hurry up and get to the Supreme Court, the friendly environs of the federal Supreme Court, where his six to three MAGA majority often sides with him 83 percent of the time.

11:43Michael Popok:But here, let's get past the legalese, shall we? let's get past the logistics, shall we? We're talking about dying and hungry Americans below the poverty line. He literally, Trump literally trolled the poor and the hungry on election day, saying, I'm not going to release the SNAP payments. Ha ha. I mean, if he had a mustache to twirl, he would have twirled his mustache like some evil person in a cartoon. I'm not going to release the not payments, not while the Democrats are holding the government hostage. Let's make this clear. The Democrats are trying to protect the same people that Donald Trump's trying to screw here, which is the poor and the middle class and the working class who can't afford health care.

12:29Michael Popok:That's why the government shut down during a time that Donald Trump effectively controls all three branches of the government. 16 million children will go without if the Supreme Court agrees with Donald Trump. There's no other way to put it. I'm putting it into stark relief. And I'll continue to follow this story. But I think it's interesting and oh so hypocritical for John Sauer and the Department of Justice for Donald Trump to start all of a sudden understanding the separation of powers and Congress controls the purse because he didn't understand it when he argued on Wednesday about the tariff program that the president has the power ultimately to tax and tariff, which is a core constitutional function of Congress.

13:13Michael Popok:It's all this double talk and double speak. We don't want to hear about agency double talk. We want to hear about the hungry getting fed. That's what everybody wants. Here's what Sky Perryman, who I just interviewed today, had to say about all of this in a press release from Democracy Forward, which is leading the case with the lawyers that I'm referring to now. After the Trump-Vance administration's lack of compliance with Judge McConnell's orders to release November supplemental nutrition benefits and a last-minute appeal and request for a stay by the government, the First Circuit Court of Appeals tonight preliminarily decided not to halt the flow of food assistance, despite the administration's request to do so.

13:54Michael Popok:This case was brought by cities and unions and nonprofits and a retailer because the administration tried to unlawfully freeze food assistance during a shutdown they engineered, cutting off essential support from 42 million people in America. The district court in Rhode Island twice ordered the administration to deliver SNAP payments promptly and most recently to make full November payments. That means the full$350 per family, give or take$8 billion in total. The court, including using contingency funds, they could get their hands on, which were all identified in an affidavit that the government even supplied.

14:30Michael Popok:A guy named Undersecretary Penn listed all of the funds he could have used, but decided not to. That's arbitrary and capricious. The Court of Appeals tonight denied the government's request. Even with this decision, the government has tonight filed a stay application with the United States Supreme Court by 930 ET, Eastern Time. Sky Perryman said the Trump Vance administration continues to attempt over and over to take food out of the hands and mouths of families, seniors, workers, and children. And every time they tried, the courts told them what the law already makes clear. They cannot. American families should not be used as political props in a shutdown that the White House manufactured.

15:11Michael Popok:Even as the administration attempts again through an appeal to the Supreme Court to deprive people of nutrition, we will continue to meet them with effective legal action and secure benefits for the American people. In fact, I've got a quote right here from Sky Perryman from today about this case and the lawlessness of the Trump administration. Let's play it. We are increasingly seeing what is an autocratic playbook unfold, an administration that actually is operating as if they will never be held accountable to the people. They are being held accountable. They're being held accountable by the people in court.

15:42They've been held accountable in elections. We're seeing it with the millions of people at the No Kings marches when the president's threatening people and millions are still showing up and saying, not on our watch, are you going to take this country down this path? But I think that that is going to be the fight that we're all going to have to be engaged in in the in the days and months and years ahead.

16:01Michael Popok:That's a perfect way to end this hot take. This is a fast moving story. When and if the Supreme Court rules sometime tonight, I will come back here on this channel and on Legal AF Substack and I will update you. Till 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.

16:36Michael Popok:We got some new reporting. We got interviews. We got ad-free versions of the podcast and hot takes. Wear legal AF on Substack. Come over now to free subscribe.

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