A federal judge in Rhode Island on Friday blocked the Trump administration from ceasing to pay SNAP benefits that help feed 42 million Americans during the U.S. government shutdown .

The oral ruling by Judge Jack McConnell , which directed that those food stamp benefits be paid out of emergency funds "as soon as possible," came a day before the administration was set to cut off the aid.

"There is no doubt, and it is beyond argument, that irreparable harm will begin to occur if it hasn't already occurred in the terror it has caused some people about the availability of funding for food for their family," McConnell said.

McConnell's ruling came minutes after another federal judge in Boston, who is overseeing a separate but similar lawsuit, said that the group of states that are

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