Liberators in Action: U.S. District Court Judges
When the government was shut down, it wasn't the President or Congress who suffered; it was 42 million people who could least afford to suffer. When hunger hangs in the balance for 1 in every 8 Americans, someone had to step in. This week, two federal judges did just that, and those Americans can buy food today. But Trump is not satisfied. He has asked the Supreme Court to rescind the lower courts' orders.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)—the nation’s safety net for millions of individuals and families with children, seniors, service members, and veterans—faced suspension. But in back-to-back rulings, John J. McConnell Jr. (U.S. District Court, Rhode Island) and Indira Talwani (U.S. District Court, Massachusetts) declared that the government couldn’t simply shut off benefits. McConnell ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture to tap contingency funds, about $5 billion and possibly another $23 billion, so benefits could continue. Talwani ruled that the USDA’s suspension was “unlawful” and forced the agency to explain how it would deliver at least partial aid.
To qualify for SNAP, households must earn no more than about $33,576 a year (gross) for a three-person family, and after deductions, no more than around $25,824. Assets must be under $3,000 unless someone is over 60 or disabled. The average benefit is only about $6.20 per person per day.
Without this assistance, children, the disabled, and the elderly risk going hungry. Meanwhile, veterans and service members are among those also relying on SNAP—more than 20,000 military families, 213,000 National Guard and Reserve members, and 1.1 million veterans, according to Veteran.com.
These judges intervened and made it clear that hunger isn’t a game and that the government’s duty can’t be put on pause. Their rulings were acts of human dignity and protection, and those judgments meant that babies' bottles would have formula, and food would be on the table for millions of people today. When Judges John McConnell and Indira Talwani ruled against the government and for these people, their goal was to liberate the food supply and those who depend on it. They did so within the jurisdiction of their duties, knowing there are three separate but equal branches of government that provide checks and balances against a branch of government that acts with excessive authority or power.