WASHINGTON — The US Supreme Court on Tuesday extended a short-term order that allows the Trump administration to withhold paying for full food stamp payments in November, a move that appeared designed to put off the case a few days in the hope that Congress approves a pending agreement to reopen the federal government.

The fast-moving emergency appeal at the Supreme Court over Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits that help more than 40 million Americans – as well as several lawsuits playing out in lower courts – would almost certainly be dismissed as moot if the historic shutdown ends in coming days.

But until that happens, the “administrative stay” that Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson issued Friday will continue to block a lower court order that required the administration to provide full federal food benefits.

In a new brief order on Tuesday, the court said it was extending the administrative stay through the end of the day Thursday. Jackson dissented from the extension.

Along with canceled flights, the spiraling legal battle over food stamps became a defining and tangible impact of the shutdown. The groups challenging the administration told the Supreme Court in a brief earlier Tuesday that SNAP beneficiaries had “now gone ten days without the help they need to afford food” and that millions of Americans, including children, were going hungry.

Nearly 42 million Americans receive food stamps on a staggered basis throughout each month. Nearly 27 million should have gotten their allotments by Monday, according to estimates by Code for America, which works with governments to improve access to safety net programs.

Households receive around $350, on average, each month to help them buy food, though for many families, the assistance is spent quickly.

But the administration countered that a lower court that ordered full SNAP payments was out of line, requiring the US Department of Agriculture to transfer about $4 billion out of one fund and into another. And, the Justice Department warned, the lower court orders on food aid “inject the federal courts into the political branches’ closing efforts to end this shutdown.”

Under a separate court order that was not before the Supreme Court, the administration relied on contingency funds to pay partial food stamp benefits for November. The question before the Supreme Court, then, was whether the administration could be required to pay the full benefits.

Amid the multiple and varied USDA guidance memos to states stemming from the court actions, a number of states sent either full or partial November benefits to their residents. At least 16 states have provided beneficiaries with their full allotments for the month, and another five states have sent partial payments, according to a CNN tally.

The food stamp program has been in legal limbo since last month, when officials said recipients would not receive their payments for November due to the lapse in government funding.

The decision prompted two lawsuits, with two federal judges ruling that the agency must at least tap into contingency funds to provide partial benefits for this month or, at its discretion, use other revenue to fully fund November’s allotments.

The USDA opted to fund partial benefits, but warned it could take weeks or months for some states to recalculate the allotments and distribute the assistance. The nonprofit groups challenging President Donald Trump raced back to US District Judge John McConnell in Rhode Island last week to argue that the court should require the USDA to fully fund the benefits to get the money out the door quickly.

McConnell obliged. He ruled the administration had not worked fast enough to ensure at least partial benefits reached millions of the program’s recipients and that it had acted “arbitrarily and capriciously” when it decided against providing the full benefits this month. The administration quickly appealed to the Boston-based 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals and then the Supreme Court.

Jackson, who handles emergency appeals from the 1st Circuit, issued what’s known as an “administrative stay” on Friday, effectively putting McConnell’s order on hold for a few days so lower courts could review the case.

Jackson’s emergency order was set to expire a few minutes before midnight on Tuesday. The justice did not explain her decision to dissent from the court’s extension. — CNN