WASHINGTON -- The US Supreme Court on Friday approved the Trump administration's emergency request to temporarily halt a lower court's order requiring full Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food aid payments during the government shutdown, sparking fresh uncertainty over the distribution of the nation's largest anti-hunger program.

Last week, shortly before the funding was set to run out, John McConnell, chief judge of the US District Court for the District of Rhode Island, said that the Agriculture Department must fund SNAP with a contingency fund "as soon as possible."

On Monday, the department said that a total of $4.65 billion in a contingency fund will be used for November SNAP benefits, which could cover 50 percent of eligible households' current allotments.

On Thursday, McConnell ordered the Trump administration to fully fund the SNAP benefits for November by Friday. In a separate court filing on the same day, Justice Department attorneys said they plan to appeal both Thursday's ruling and McConnell's earlier order from the previous week mandating SNAP funding.

The administration urged the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals to pause any rulings that would force it to spend beyond the available contingency funds and requested permission to proceed with its planned partial SNAP payments for the month.

On Friday, the Trump administration turned to the Supreme Court to request a stay of the lower judge's order to pay full food stamp benefits in November.

Soon after the Justice Department took the matter to the Supreme Court, the appeals court rejected the administration's request for a temporary pause of the lower court's order.

On Friday night, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson temporarily halted the mandate to issue full SNAP payments for two days, pending a decision from the appeals court on whether to issue a longer pause. The justice stopped short of ruling on whether the White House's actions were lawful.

The SNAP program covers 42 million Americans -- roughly one-eighth of the national population -- most of whom live below the poverty line. It ran out of funding Nov 1 for the first time in its history.