Trump administration still asking Supreme Court to block SNAP funding order
Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) signage at a grocery store in Dorchester, Massachusetts, US, on Monday, Nov. 3, 2025. Mel Musto/Bloomberg via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Amid efforts to end the ongoing government shutdown, the Trump administration has informed the Supreme Court that it intends to continue seeking a stay of a lower court’s order requiring full payment of November SNAP benefits.
That order remains on hold following a late-Friday night administrative action by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Solicitor General John Sauer told the court that if the government reopens, its request would become moot — but in the meantime, the administration is making clear that it still wants the justices to allow it to make an only a partial payment of SNAP benefits for the month.
The administration is currently seeking to “undo” hundreds of millions of dollars in SNAP benefits that went out after the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which operates SNAP, told states Friday afternoon that it was “working towards implementing November 2025 full benefit issuances” to comply with a court order.
The administration asked the Supreme Court on Friday for an emergency stay of a ruling by U.S. District Judge John McConnell ordering the administration to fully fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for the month of November, saying it would partially fund SNAP with approximately $4.5 billion but that it needed the remaining funds to support WIC programs that feed children.
Justice Jackson granted the stay, pending a decision on the administration’s appeal to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Late Sunday, the circuit court denied the administration’s appeal, rejecting the administration’s argument that harm suffered by the government by complying with the order would outweigh the harm suffered by the millions of Americans who rely on the food assistance program.
“These immediate, predictable, and unchallenged harms facing forty-two million Americans who rely on SNAP benefits — including fourteen million children — weigh heavily against a stay,” wrote Judge Julie Rikelman.
On Saturday the USDA told states that they must “immediately undo any steps taken to issue full SNAP benefits for November 2025” but 20 states said they had already begun the process of issuing full November benefits.
A federal judge in Boston has set an emergency hearing for Monday afternoon to consider the legality of the administration’s guidance that states “undo” SNAP benefits.
A group of state attorneys general argue that it would be nearly impossible — as well as unfair and illegal — to unwind hundreds of millions in SNAP benefits after they have already been issued.
“In the span of less than a week, USDA has circulated multiple formal guidance documents, each inconsistent with the prior one, forcing the Plaintiffs into a continual state of whiplash,” they argued in a court filing.
At least five people have been killed and 30 others injured in shootings across Chicago over Labor Day weekend, including a drive-by attack that left seven victims wounded late Saturday night, according to police.
The violent holiday weekend came as President Donald Trump renewed threats to send federal agents and National Guard troops to Chicago over the objections of Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.
Trump on Saturday sent a warning to the Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker in a post on his social media platform, referencing recent crime in Chicago and saying Pritzker “better straighten it out, FAST, or we’re coming!”
Illinois Gov. Pritzker, a Democrat, responded in a news conference a week ago to an earlier Trump threat to “straighten out Chicago, just like we did D.C.,” by saying that the president’s plan was “unprecedented and unwarranted. It is illegal, it is unconstitutional, it is un-American.”
Mayor Johnson responded last week by saying in part that he had “grave concerns about the impact of any unlawful deployment of National Guard troops to the city of Chicago,” and calling Trump’s approach “uncoordinated, uncalled for, and unsound.” Johnson also said that deploying the National Guard in Chicago could “inflame tensions between residents and law enforcement.”
On Saturday, Mayor Johnson signed an executive order dubbed the “Protecting Chicago Initiative,” which he described in a news conference as “the most sweeping campaign of any city in the country to protect ourselves from the threats and actions of this out-of-control administration,” and which “directs our department of law to pursue any and every legal mechanism to hold this administration accountable for violating the rights of Chicagoans.”
“We have received credible reports that we have days, not weeks, before our city sees some type of militarized activity by the federal government,” Johnson said, in part. “We take these threats seriously and we find ourselves in a position where we must take immediate, drastic action to protect our people from federal overreach.”
At least 20 separate shootings occurred in Chicago between 10:32 p.m. Friday and 3 a.m. Sunday morning, according to a review by ABC News of police incident reports published online.
The victims included a 17-year-old girl who was inside her home when a bullet came through a front window and hit her in the arm, a 31-year-old man who was shot in the leg after getting caught in the crossfire of gunmen shooting at each other from two vehicles, and a 25-year-old woman who was shot and injured while driving down a street, all according to the incident reports.
Fewer than five hours after Trump posted a message on social media on Saturday criticizing Pritzker’s handling of crime in Chicago, a mass shooting occurred in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago’s South Side that left seven people wounded.
“He better straighten it out, FAST, or we’re coming!,” Trump said in his post about Pritzker.
The shooting in Bronzeville occurred about 11:10 p.m. on Saturday on South State Street, according to police. A group of people were gathered outside in the area when a vehicle drove by and at least one occupant opened fire on the crowd. All seven people shot, five men and two women ranging in age from 28 to 32, were taken to hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries to their lower extremities, police said. No suspects have been arrested.
The first of five homicides that police say occurred over the long holiday weekend happened at 11:56 p.m. on Friday at the South Shore apartment complex on East Essex Street, where two women were discovered shot, according to police.
A 25-year-old woman was found in the apartment suffering from two gunshot wounds to her stomach and one to her leg, according to a police incident report. She was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center where she was pronounced dead, according to authorities. The victim’s name was not immediately released.
The second victim, a 23-year-old woman, suffered gunshot wounds to both legs and was in fair condition at the University of Chicago Medical Center.
Investigators were interviewing a person of interest in the East Essex Street homicide but no arrests have been announced, according to police.
Elsewhere, two men were shot, one fatally, in the East Garfield Park neighborhood of Chicago around 11 a.m. on Saturday, according to police. The victims were standing outside on North Sawyer Avenue when a dark SUV approached them and a gunman exited the vehicle and opened fire, according to a police incident report.
A 29-year-old man, whose name was not immediately released, was shot multiple times and taken to Mount Sinai Hospital where he was pronounced dead, according to police. The second victim, a 32-year-old man, suffered a gunshot wound to his right side and was in stable condition at Mount Sinai, police said. No arrests have been announced in the incident.
Also on Saturday, gunfire erupted in the Altgeld Gardens neighborhood. Around 7:46 p.m., a 43-year-old woman was standing outside on E. 131st Street when five armed men approached her and opened fire, striking her multiple times, according to police. The victim, whose name was not immediately released, was taken to Christ Hospital where she was pronounced dead, police said.
No arrests have been announced in the Altgeld Gardens homicide.
Around 1:39 a.m. on Sunday, a 46-year-old man, whose name was not immediately released, was killed in a triple shooting that occurred in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago’s Lower West Side, according to police. The victims were standing on West 17th Street when a gunman walked up to them and opened fire, police said.
The two other victims, a 41-year-old man and a 43-year-old man, suffered gunshot wounds to their legs and were in good condition at Mount Sinai Hospital, police said.
Around 2:52 a.m. on Sunday, a 33-year-old man was killed in the West Inglewood neighborhood on the Southwest Side of Chicago, police said. The victim got into a argument inside a residence with a man who shot him in the head, according to police. The victim, whose name was not immediately released, was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police. No arrests were announced.
The series of shootings came after President Donald Trump said last week that he is prepared to order National Guard troops to American cities in addition to those in the nation’s capital, but that he wanted local officials to request his help.
Trump threatened to make Chicago the next city he would target after he declared what he said was a public safety emergency in Washington, D.C., and he put the city’s police force under federal control on Aug. 11.
Violent crime in Chicago has dropped significantly in the first half of the year, according to official data released by the city. Shootings are down 37% and homicides have dropped by 32% compared to the first half of 2024, while total violence crime dropped by over 22%, according to the crime statistics.
“Do not come to Chicago, you are neither wanted here nor needed here,” Pritzker further said in response to Trump during a news conference last week. “Donald Trump wants to use the military to occupy a U.S. city to punish its dissidents and score political points. If this were happening in any other country, we would have no trouble calling it what it is – a dangerous power-grab.”
(CHICAGO) — At least 57 people have been shot, seven fatally, across Chicago over Labor Day weekend, including a drive-by attack that left seven victims wounded, according to police.
The violent holiday weekend came as President Donald Trump renewed threats to send federal agents and National Guard troops to Chicago over the objections of Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.
Trump on Saturday sent a warning to Pritzker in a post on his social media platform, referencing recent crime in Chicago and saying Pritzker “better straighten it out, FAST, or we’re coming!”
Pritzker, a Democrat, responded in a news conference a week ago to an earlier Trump threat to “straighten out Chicago, just like we did D.C.,” by saying that the president’s plan was “unprecedented and unwarranted. It is illegal, it is unconstitutional, it is un-American.”
Johnson responded last week by saying in part that he had “grave concerns about the impact of any unlawful deployment of National Guard troops to the city of Chicago,” and calling Trump’s approach “uncoordinated, uncalled for, and unsound.” Johnson also said that deploying the National Guard in Chicago could “inflame tensions between residents and law enforcement.”
On Saturday, Johnson signed an executive order dubbed the “Protecting Chicago Initiative,” which he described in a news conference as “the most sweeping campaign of any city in the country to protect ourselves from the threats and actions of this out-of-control administration” and which “directs our department of law to pursue any and every legal mechanism to hold this administration accountable for violating the rights of Chicagoans.”
“We have received credible reports that we have days, not weeks, before our city sees some type of militarized activity by the federal government,” Johnson said, in part. “We take these threats seriously and we find ourselves in a position where we must take immediate, drastic action to protect our people from federal overreach.”
At least 36 separate shootings occurred in Chicago between 10:32 p.m. Friday and noon on 11:13 p.m. Monday, according to a review by ABC News of police incident reports published online.
The victims included a 17-year-old girl who was inside her home when a bullet came through a front window and hit her in the arm, a 31-year-old man who was shot in the leg after getting caught in the crossfire of gunmen shooting at each other from two vehicles, and two people who shot and injured while driving down a street, all according to the incident reports.
Fewer than five hours after Trump posted a message on social media on Saturday criticizing Pritzker’s handling of crime in Chicago, a mass shooting occurred in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago’s South Side that left seven people wounded.
“He better straighten it out, FAST, or we’re coming!” Trump said in his post about Pritzker.
The shooting in Bronzeville occurred about 11:10 p.m. on Saturday on South State Street, according to police. A group of people were gathered outside in the area when a vehicle drove by and at least one occupant opened fire on the crowd. All seven people shot, five men and two women ranging in age from 28 to 32, were taken to hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries to their lower extremities, police said. No suspects have been arrested.
The first of seven homicides that police say occurred over the long holiday weekend happened at 11:56 p.m. on Friday at the South Shore apartment complex on East Essex Street, where two women were discovered shot, according to police.
A 25-year-old woman was found in the apartment suffering from two gunshot wounds to her stomach and one to her leg, according to a police incident report. She was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center where she was pronounced dead, according to authorities. The victim’s name was not immediately released.
The second victim, a 23-year-old woman, suffered gunshot wounds to both legs and was in fair condition at the University of Chicago Medical Center.
Investigators were interviewing a person of interest in the East Essex Street homicide but no arrests have been announced, according to police.
Elsewhere, two men were shot, one fatally, in the East Garfield Park neighborhood of Chicago around 11 a.m. on Saturday, according to police. The victims were standing outside on North Sawyer Avenue when a dark SUV approached them and a gunman exited the vehicle and opened fire, according to a police incident report.
A 29-year-old man, whose name was not immediately released, was shot multiple times and taken to Mount Sinai Hospital where he was pronounced dead, according to police. The second victim, a 32-year-old man, suffered a gunshot wound to his right side and was in stable condition at Mount Sinai, police said. No arrests have been announced in the incident.
Also on Saturday, gunfire erupted in the Altgeld Gardens neighborhood. Around 7:46 p.m., a 43-year-old woman was standing outside on E. 131st Street when five armed men approached her and opened fire, striking her multiple times, according to police. The victim, whose name was not immediately released, was taken to Christ Hospital where she was pronounced dead, police said.
No arrests have been announced in the Altgeld Gardens homicide.
Around 1:39 a.m. on Sunday, a 46-year-old man, whose name was not immediately released, was killed in a triple shooting that occurred in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago’s Lower West Side, according to police. The victims were standing on West 17th Street when a gunman walked up to them and opened fire, police said.
The two other victims, a 41-year-old man and a 43-year-old man, suffered gunshot wounds to their legs and were in good condition at Mount Sinai Hospital, police said.
Around 2:52 a.m. on Sunday, a 33-year-old man was killed in the West Inglewood neighborhood on the Southwest Side of Chicago, police said. The victim got into a argument inside a residence with a man who shot him in the head, according to police. The victim, whose name was not immediately released, was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police. No arrests were announced.
The violence continued Sunday night as police launched two more homicide investigations.
A 26-year-old woman was fatally shot around 7:28 p.m. on Sunday in the Pullman neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side after getting into a verbal altercation with another woman, police said. The victim, whose name was not released, was shot in the chest and taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead, according to police. No arrests have been announced.
Also on Sunday night, police discovered a man lying on the ground suffering from multiple gunshot wounds in the Little Village neighborhood of southwest Chicago, police said. The victim, who was found on S. Drake Avenue, died at the scene, police said. No suspects have been identified.
At least three additional shootings unfolded early Monday in the city, including one that left five people wounded, including a 17-year-old boy who was in critical condition after suffering multiple gunshot wounds, police said.
Just after 1 a.m. on Monday, police were called to the Oakland neighborhood on the city’s South Side for a report of a large disturbance on South Cottage Grove Avenue, according to a police incident report. Upon arrival, officers followed the sound of gunfire to an area where they found the five shooting victims and four discarded firearms, according to police. Besides the critically wounded teenager, police said the four other victims, ranging in age from 26 to 36, were taken to hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries.
One person of interest was being questioned in the Oakland neighborhood shooting, but no charges have been announced.
Around 11:20 a.m. on Monday, a 48-year-old man was shot in the West Elsdon neighborhood of southeast Chicago, according to police. The victim, who was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition, was standing outside of a residence when a gunman approached him and opened fire, striking him multiple times in the abdomen, according to police. No arrests have been announced.
The series of shootings came after President Donald Trump said last week that he is prepared to order National Guard troops to American cities in addition to those in the nation’s capital, but that he wanted local officials to request his help.
Trump threatened to make Chicago the next city he would target after he declared what he said was a public safety emergency in Washington, D.C., and he put the city’s police force under federal control on Aug. 11.
Violent crime in Chicago has dropped significantly in the first half of the year, according to official data released by the city. Shootings are down 37% and homicides have dropped by 32% compared to the first half of 2024, while total violence crime dropped by over 22%, according to the crime statistics.
“Do not come to Chicago, you are neither wanted here nor needed here,” Pritzker further said in response to Trump during a news conference last week. “Donald Trump wants to use the military to occupy a U.S. city to punish its dissidents and score political points. If this were happening in any other country, we would have no trouble calling it what it is – a dangerous power-grab.”
ABC News Ahmad Hemingway contributed to this report.
An excavator sits on the rubble after the East Wing of the White House was demolished on October 28, 2025 in Washington, DC. Alex Wong/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Days after the abrupt demolition of the East Wing of the White House, critics are questioning whether the Trump administration and contractors involved in razing the historic structure adhered to federal health and safety standards, including those governing the handling of hazardous materials like asbestos, a dangerous and potentially deadly substance widely used during the period of the East Wing’s original construction.
On Thursday, Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., penned a letter to executives at the firm responsible for the demolition seeking evidence that the company complied with regulations dictating the safe removal of asbestos and lead — or if, instead, they “cut corners” and “gambled with people’s health.”
“The demolition of a structure of the age and historic national significance of the East Wing demands the highest possible standards of care, not the lowest bid and a blind eye toward regulation,” Markey wrote to leaders of ACECO, a Maryland-based demolition contractor.
The senator’s overture comes days after the nation’s largest asbestos victims’ organization raised alarms about whether the White House may have deviated from accepted practices for handling these materials.
“Federal law requires comprehensive asbestos inspection, notification, and abatement before any demolition,” wrote the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) last week. “No publicly available information demonstrates that these statutory obligations have been fulfilled.”
A White House official would not say whether asbestos was found in the East Wing, but told ABC News that “a very extensive abatement and remediation assessment was followed, complying with all applicable federal standards.”
The official said that “any hazardous material abatement was done in September,” prior to the demolition earlier this month.
But Linda Reinstein, the president of ADAO, said she has seen no public evidence to suggest that an assessment or abatement took place. Federal standards require rigorous inspections to be done prior to demolition, and those inspections are then documented with a certification. If asbestos is found, workers on site would be observed wearing protective equipment, like hazmat suits.
“I am deeply concerned for White House staff and others working in or near the East Wing demolition site,” Reinstein said. “It remains unclear what measures have been taken to ensure the safe removal of deadly asbestos and other hazardous materials.”
Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral that was commonly used in mid-century structures for fireproofing and insulation, before its deadly health risks were fully known. Invisible asbestos fibers can become airborne whenever materials containing asbestos are disturbed during demolition, renovation, or even routine maintenance.
Doctors warn that there is no safe level of asbestos exposure, and that even short, unprotected demolition work can damage the lungs and increase the risk of developing mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, exposure to asbestos fibers can cause scarring in the lungs and increases the risk of mesothelioma and lung cancer.
Dr. Raja Flores, a top lung doctor, said it can take years after inhaling the fibers for symptoms to arise.
The progressive lung disease and cancer that can occur after asbestos exposure “makes you weak, you feel short of breath, feel like you’re drowning and all these symptoms develop over a long period of time,” Flores said. “It is a prolonged and agonizing torture.”
“You wouldn’t catch me in there — not without a mask” and “not without precautions,” Flores said, referring to the White House complex during demolition.
Although White House officials would not say whether asbestos existed in the building, some experts suggest that its age and the era of its construction mean that it likely had the presence of the fiber. Originally completed in 1800, the building underwent major renovations in the 1940s and 50s, at the peak of asbestos use in buildings.
Last week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent defended President Donald Trump’s decision to demolish the East Wing, citing in part his assumption that “parts of the East Wing could have been asbestos, could have been mold.”
The demolition of the East Wing has been unpopular with most Americans, according to new polling released Thursday morning.
A 56% majority of Americans oppose the Trump administration tearing down the East Wing of the White House as part of the construction of a 90,000-square-foot ballroom paid for by $300 million in private donations, including 45% who “strongly” oppose it, according to an ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll conducted using Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel.
President Trump said in July that the ballroom project would not interfere with the existing White House structure. But last week, as crews began to raze the East Wing, an official said the “entirety of the East Wing will be modernized.”
By Thursday, satellite images from Planet Labs PBC showed the East Wing reduced to rubble.
The White House has required at least some of the construction workers tasked with demolishing the East Wing to sign nondisclosure agreements barring them from discussing their work, according to sources familiar with the project.
A White House official told ABC News that requiring workers to sign NDAs is “standard” practice, given aspects of the project deal with the operational security of the White House.
Bob Sussman, who was the deputy EPA administrator under President Bill Clinton and a senior EPA policy counsel under President Barack Obama, said “the speed with which all this happened and the reasons why it happened so quickly should have raised many questions.”
Some environmental and health experts are warning about potential risks to the public if demolition debris that may contain asbestos is being moved off White House grounds without the appropriate safety measures.
“I am concerned that wherever they move this debris, the population in that area is going to be at risk for 20 to 30 years,” Dr. Flores said.
Markey’s letter seeks details from ACECO on the timeline of the demolition, the process it followed, what permits were sought, and whether any incidents were reported, and asks ACECO to respond by Nov. 12.
ABC News’ Jared Kofsky contributed to this report.
