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America's top court has issued an emergency order that temporarily allows the federal government to delay billions of dollars for food benefits used by millions of low-income Americans.

Administration officials appealed to the country's highest court after a lower court ordered that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, should be distributed completely to beneficiaries by Friday.

The programme has been caught in uncertainty by the ongoing federal government shutdown, with the government claiming it could only afford to partially fund it.

The court's decision means $4bn can be temporarily withheld until more court proceedings.

SNAP's Reach

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

Earlier this week, a federal magistrate, the presiding judge, alleged the Trump administration of withholding food aid "for political reasons" and said that without the aid "millions of kids are in danger of going hungry".

The judge mandated the government to fund the assistance completely.

Legal Background

The Thursday ruling came after that required the administration to dip into contingency funds to at least partially fund the assistance for November.

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

Prior to the high court's action, the USDA said it was working to comply with the various court orders and was making efforts to doll out the complete amount.

High Court's Move

Supreme Court Justice Justice Jackson issued the order on Friday evening, known as an administrative stay, effectively freezing the previous decision for two days while government lawyer's seek to overturn it.

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

Broader Impact

Federal employees have been unpaid for more than a month and flight operations has been disrupted as Congress members cannot reach a compromise to fund the government.

Some states have used their own budget savings to keep Snap payments going, which are valued at around six dollars to users via pre-loaded debit cards which can be used in food markets.

However, certain states have said they are cannot cover the funding which has been cut by the federal government.