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

Administration officials sought relief from the country's highest court after a lower court ordered that the SNAP program, called food stamps, should be distributed completely to recipients by the end of the week.

The programme has been left in limbo by the ongoing federal government shutdown, with the Trump administration claiming it could only pay for part of it.

The court's decision means £3.04bn can be temporarily withheld pending further legal hearings.

SNAP's Reach

This nutrition aid is used by 42 million Americans - around one in eight - and costs almost £6.9bn a each month.

Earlier this week, a Rhode Island judge, John McConnell, accused the Trump administration of withholding food aid "due to political motives" and said that without the assistance "millions of kids are immediately at risk of going hungry".

The judge mandated the administration to pay out the programme in full.

Court Proceedings

The Thursday ruling followed another that required the government to dip into contingency funds to at least partially fund the programme for November.

The legal saga was triggered after the USDA, which oversees the Snap programme, stated benefits would be stopped in November due to the budget shortfall over the shutdown.

Before the Supreme Court stepped in, the USDA said it was working to comply with the various court orders and was making efforts to distribute the complete amount.

High Court's Move

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson granted the order late Friday, known as an temporary halt, effectively freezing the lower court's ruling for 48 hours while government lawyer's seek to overturn it.

The row over food aid funding has become one of the bitterest of what is now the longest government shutdown in American history.

Wider Effects

Federal employees have been unpaid for more than a month and air travel has been thrown into chaos as Democratic and Republican lawmakers fail to agree a deal to fund the government.

Several states have used their own financial reserves to keep Snap payments going, which are worth around six dollars to users via pre-loaded debit cards which can be redeemed in grocery stores.

However, certain states have said they are cannot cover the funding which has been lost from the U.S. treasury.