.@TheJusticeDept just filed a request for an immediate stay of Judge McConnell’s utterly lawless Temporary Restraining Order issued yesterday after business hours—yet remarkably forcing @USDA to “raid school-lunch money to instead fund SNAP benefits.” That TRO purports to force the government to divert some $5 billion from the school lunch program to SNAP by the end of today.
Why could we file this brief only this morning, with that clock ticking? The First Circuit clerk’s office made it impossible to file sooner. Despite being notified by the government of the high likelihood of fast-moving litigation, the First Circuit clerk’s office refused to answer its phones until this morning, and refused to offer any means of filing this emergency request until it processed certain paperwork during regular business hours.
So, Judge McConnell exacerbated his own manufactured emergency by starting the government’s clock just after the First Circuit closed for the day, forcing an even faster rush today to disadvantage the government further.
It is Congress’s job is to end this shutdown and fund SNAP and other programs. We ask the First Circuit to get courts out of the business of deciding how to triage scarce funds during a shutdown. When lawless district courts step in to try to manage the federal fisc, it upends the political process and unacceptably risks compromising the programs for everyone.
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