The Trump administration on Friday asked a federal appeals court to block, for now, a lower court's decision that would require it to fully fund the nation's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food aid program by the end of the day. 

Lawyers for the Justice Department asked the First Circuit Court of Appeals to temporarily stay an injunction handed down one day earlier by a federal judge in Rhode Island. The appeal is the latest in an ongoing court fight over the food aid program that funds 42 million low-income Americans. 

U.S. District Judge John McConnell ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday to allocate $4 billion in alternative contingency funds as needed to fully fund the SNAP program through November, noting the urgency of the food aid and the need for distribution.

The judge also scolded the Trump administration for agreeing to fund just 65% of the SNAP benefits. "It’s likely that SNAP recipients are hungry as we sit here," McConnell said Thursday shortly before issuing the new order, which gave the USDA less than 24 hours to comply.

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In their filing Friday to the First Circuit Court of Appeals, Trump's legal team argued that the lower court order "makes a mockery of the separation of powers," and accused McConnell of overstepping his powers as a federal judge.

"There is no lawful basis for an order that directs USDA to somehow find $4 billion in the metaphorical couch cushions," DOJ lawyers argued, describing his order as an "unprecedented injunction" and one that "makes a mockery of the separation of powers."

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"This is a crisis, to be sure, but it is a crisis occasioned by congressional failure, and that can only be solved by congressional action," they added. 

McConnell on Thursday also said the Trump administration had failed to comply with his original order last week, which required USDA to fund the SNAP benefits before its funds were slated to lapse on Nov. 1, the first time ever in the program's 60-year history. 

The government "did nothing to ensure that the money would be paid on Wednesday," he said.

The judge also said Trump officials failed to address a known funding distribution problem that could cause SNAP payments to be delayed for weeks or months in some states.

A trip planned by researchers who are looking for answers about the disappearance of American aviator Amelia Earhart has been delayed. 

The Purdue Research Foundation, based in Indiana, and the Archaeological Legacy Institute, in Oregon, announced they've halted their "Taraia Object Expedition" search project for the time being.

Researchers had been planning to depart on November 4 from Majuro, in the Marshall Islands, for the remote island of Nikumaroro — located roughly halfway between Australia and Hawaii.

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But a press release noted the project has been postponed to 2026, given the onset of the South Pacific cyclone season.

"The decision comes as the team awaits additional clearance from the Kiribati government and as seasonal weather challenges kick in over the Pacific Ocean during winter months," reads the release.

When they do reach the island, researchers want to determine whether the "Taraia Object," a visual anomaly captured by a satellite, is actually the remains of Earhart’s plane.

Earhart is widely known as an aviation trailblazer, becoming the first woman to fly solo and nonstop across the U.S. on Aug. 24, 1932.

She once worked at Purdue University in Indiana, serving as a career counselor for women and advising the aeronautical engineering department while living in the women’s residence hall.

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Earhart flew The Electra, which disappeared on July 2, 1937, while traveling from New Guinea to Howland Island.

Researchers hypothesize that Earhart did not crash at sea, but instead landed and was stranded on Nikumaroro Island, later perishing there.

President Donald Trump previously announced that he had ordered his administration to declassify and release all government records related to Amelia Earhart.

Steven Schultz, chief legal officer of the Purdue Research Foundation, spoke about Trump's order at a press conference last month.

"One of the aspects of that message was he ordered the release of any classified material related to Amelia and her final flight," he said. "To our knowledge, there are no records — there are no such records that remain to be unclassified."

Dorothy Cochrane, the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum’s Earhart expert, previously told Fox News Digital that "there’s no real mystery" surrounding The Electra’s disappearance. 

"Amelia and [navigator] Fred [Noonan] were on the right path. They had the course to get to nearby Howland Island. … It was such a small island in the middle of nowhere, and there were radio communications issues; they could not find it before they ran out of fuel," she noted.

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Many theories have circulated about the disappearance, such as Earhart living as a castaway on the island of Nikumaroro, being captured by the Japanese or serving as a "U.S. spy" and observing Japanese activity in the Pacific. 

Cochrane said she doesn’t buy into these theories. 

"There are facts to be followed from the Coast Guard folks who were awaiting them at Howland, so it's pertinent to search in and around Howland," she said.