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The US Supreme Court has granted an emergency order that temporarily allows the Trump administration to withhold billions of dollars for food benefits used by countless needy U.S. residents.

Administration officials appealed to the Supreme Court after a federal judge ordered that the SNAP program, called food stamps, should be distributed in full to beneficiaries by the end of the week.

The programme has been left in limbo by the ongoing federal government shutdown, with the Trump administration arguing it could only afford to partially fund it.

Friday's ruling means $4bn can be held back for now pending further legal hearings.

Programme Impact

The Snap programme is issued by tens of millions of U.S. citizens - approximately 12% - and requires almost £6.9bn a month.

Earlier this week, a Rhode Island judge, John McConnell, accused the Trump administration of blocking nutrition funds "due to political motives" and said that without the assistance "16 million children are in danger of facing hunger".

The judge mandated the government to fund the assistance completely.

Legal Background

The Thursday ruling came after that required the administration to dip into reserve money to at least partly pay for the programme for last month.

The legal saga was spurred after the US Department of Agriculture, which manages the food stamp program, announced benefits would be halted in the fall due to the budget shortfall over the shutdown.

Before the Supreme Court stepped in, the Agriculture Department said it was attempting to follow with the multiple rulings and was making efforts to doll out the full funds.

Supreme Court Action

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson granted the order late Friday, known as an temporary halt, pausing the lower court's ruling for two days while federal attorneys seek to overturn it.

This dispute over nutrition program money has become one of the bitterest of what is now the longest government shutdown in American history.

Wider Effects

Federal employees have been without pay for over 30 days and flight operations has been disrupted as Congress members fail to agree a deal to fund the government.

Some states have drawn on their own financial reserves to keep Snap payments going, which are worth around six dollars to recipients via pre-loaded debit cards which can be redeemed in food markets.

However, certain states have said they are cannot cover the money which has been lost from the federal government.