Judge McConnell’s SNAP Order: A Short-Sighted Violation Of Separation Of Powers

Obama-appointed Judge John J. McConnell’s recent order compelling President Trump to use emergency funds to pay November SNAP benefits is both short-sighted and unlawful. The order, issued in late October 2025, directs the administration to draw from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program’s (SNAP) contingency reserve to issue benefits despite Congress’s failure to appropriate funds for fiscal year 2026. The problem is not only practical but constitutional. It provides, at best, a few weeks of reprieve for beneficiaries, and at worst, it compels the executive branch to commit an illegal act, spending funds that Congress has not appropriated.

The issue is not whether hungry families deserve assistance. It is whether a federal judge can compel the President of the United States to violate the Constitution’s Appropriations Clause and the Antideficiency Act. The answer, based on statute, precedent, and the very architecture of the Constitution, is no.

The SNAP program operates under the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008, which makes benefits an appropriated entitlement. That phrase matters. It means that Congress must annually appropriate funds for the benefits, even though eligibility rules are permanent law. Each year, Congress sets aside a lump sum to fund benefits and, typically, a contingency reserve to cover unexpected shortfalls. The current reserve, approximately $3 billion, was authorized for use only when Congress has already appropriated SNAP funds but they prove insufficient. In other words, the reserve supplements appropriated funds; it cannot replace them.

The Department of Agriculture (USDA), which administers SNAP, has consistently maintained this interpretation. In an October 2025 memorandum issued during the shutdown, USDA explicitly stated that the contingency reserve “is not legally available” to pay November benefits absent a new appropriation. It could only be used to make up shortfalls in an already-funded fiscal year or to address disasters like hurricanes or floods. Judge McConnell’s order directly contradicts that statutory understanding and forces USDA to do what it itself has declared unlawful. If Judge McConnell can order the executive to spend money that Congress has yet to appropriate, why not simply order Congress to appropriate the funds? Senator Josh Hawley introduced the Keep SNAP Funded Act, which Democrats voted against, showing that the issue is political, not administrative. In both cases, the judge would be violating the separation of powers.

That contradiction exposes the first problem with the ruling: it is short-sighted. Even if USDA were to obey, the funds in the contingency reserve would keep SNAP running for no more than two or three weeks. Once those reserves are exhausted, the administration would again face a funding void. The court has not conjured a long-term solution; it has simply delayed the inevitable. Worse, it has drained a fund intended for actual emergencies, leaving fewer resources available if a natural disaster strikes. In effect, the court’s order sacrifices future disaster readiness to score a short-term political point.

The deeper problem, however, is constitutional. The Appropriations Clause of the US Constitution, Article I, Section 9, Clause 7, is unambiguous: “No money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law.” The Supreme Court has reaffirmed this principle repeatedly, from Cincinnati Soap Co. v. United States (1937) to United States v. MacCollom (1976). These cases make clear that the executive may spend only what Congress explicitly permits. To spend otherwise is to violate the Constitution itself. The President, no matter who holds the office, cannot spend one dollar without congressional authorization. Congress holds the purse strings, and no court can move its hand.

The Antideficiency Act gives teeth to that principle. It makes it illegal for any officer or employee of the federal government to make an expenditure or obligation in excess of an appropriation. Violations carry administrative and even criminal penalties. The law exists precisely to prevent executive officials from spending during funding lapses. It ensures that when Congress fails to act, the government halts. That stoppage is not an accident but a constitutional design, a mechanism that forces political resolution through the elected branches.

Judge McConnell’s ruling, therefore, places the administration in an impossible position. If President Trump complies, he violates both the Constitution and the Antideficiency Act. If he refuses, he defies a court order. The judiciary has effectively demanded an illegal act. And here lies the real absurdity: if the court can compel the executive to spend without appropriations, why not compel the Senate to pass a continuing resolution? Both actions would circumvent the same constitutional framework. Neither is lawful. The court cannot seize Congress’s power of the purse any more than it can draft legislation from the bench.

This is not a theoretical concern. During past shutdowns, administrations of both parties, Obama’s, Trump’s first term, and Biden’s, have adhered to the same constitutional limits. In 2018–2019, the USDA found creative ways to issue February SNAP benefits early, relying on technical authority from an expiring continuing resolution. But it did not tap the contingency reserve for regular benefits, even though the reserve existed. The Government Accountability Office later ruled that even that early issuance pushed the boundaries of legality. The consistent practice has been to avoid spending unappropriated funds, no matter how pressing the need.

The idea that a district judge can now upend that entire framework represents judicial activism of a dangerous kind. Courts exist to interpret the law, not to write appropriations. The Supreme Court has long warned against this encroachment. As Justice Scalia once observed, “The Constitution does not permit the judiciary to usurp the functions of the legislative branch under the guise of judicial interpretation.” The separation of powers is not a suggestion; it is a structural safeguard.

Defenders of the ruling argue that humanitarian urgency justifies the court’s action. But urgency cannot override the Constitution. Every unconstitutional act is undertaken for what someone believes to be a good cause. The Framers designed the system precisely to resist that temptation. As James Madison wrote in Federalist No. 51, “You must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.” Allowing the judiciary to spend money when Congress will not is the very opposite of self-restraint.

Moreover, the ruling creates a perverse precedent. If a court can compel spending on SNAP during a funding lapse, why not on other programs? Could a judge order the Department of Defense to pay soldiers during a shutdown, or the Department of Transportation to continue highway projects? The logic of McConnell’s order knows no bounds. It invites a judicial takeover of fiscal policy. The Constitution’s framers feared precisely this form of power drift, the slow but steady erosion of the legislature’s control over money.

One might object that SNAP recipients should not suffer because Congress cannot govern itself. That is true, but the remedy lies in Congress, not the courts. Lawmakers can and should pass appropriations or a continuing resolution. The Constitution gives them exclusive authority to do so. It gives the judiciary none. The fact that a judge feels moral urgency does not confer fiscal power. Judicial compassion, untethered from constitutional limits, is indistinguishable from tyranny in robes.

There is also an irony here. By draining the SNAP contingency fund prematurely, Judge McConnell’s order risks worsening hardship if a genuine emergency arises. The reserve was created for disasters, tornadoes, floods, or hurricanes that suddenly disrupt access to food. In October 2025, the USDA cited Tropical Storm Melissa as an example of why the reserve must remain intact. The court’s order ignores that warning. It spends tomorrow’s safety net to score a moral victory today.

A proper understanding of the Constitution demands humility from every branch of government. The President cannot legislate, and the courts cannot appropriate. When judges forget this, they invite crisis. The path of compassion through illegality is not compassion at all; it is constitutional decay. A government that can spend without law is a government that can rule without law.

The Trump administration should appeal Judge McConnell’s order, not to deny aid to the poor, but to preserve the rule of law. Every administration, Republican or Democrat, benefits when the separation of powers is respected. No president should be forced by a single district judge to commit a crime. No court should pretend to wield Congress’s pen.

The Constitution is not a suicide pact, but it is a discipline. It obliges us to resist expedience and preserve process. Judge McConnell’s decision, dressed in the rhetoric of compassion, is in fact an assault on the most fundamental restraint on power in the American system. It trades law for sentiment and prudence for pretense. The correct path forward is clear: Congress must act, or the program must pause. What the judiciary may not do is force the President to spend what Congress has not given him. That is not justice. That is usurpation.

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