Federal Judge Rules USDA Overstepped SNAP Authority
A federal judge struck down SNAP food restriction pilot programs on June 22, 2026, ruling that USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins exceeded her legal authority when she approved waivers blocking recipients from buying certain sugary foods. The ruling affects five states: Tennessee, Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, and West Virginia.
U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson found that Rollins effectively rewrote the statutory definition of “food” under the SNAP program. That definition is set by Congress, not the executive branch.
“With her solicitation and approval of the pilot projects in this case, the Secretary purports to waive not just a mere administrative or technical obstacle, but the very definition of ‘food’ as it was laid down by Congress.”
Judge Amy Berman Jackson, U.S. District Court opinion, June 22, 2026
The USDA also failed to publish notice of the pilot programs in the Federal Register at least 30 days before implementation, a legal requirement for projects likely to have significant public impact. The court found the USDA’s own claim that the programs would have no significant public impact was “directly contrary to the facts in the administrative record.”
Tennessee Had Planned July 31 Rollout
Tennessee’s waiver would have blocked SNAP recipients from purchasing any item listing sugar, corn syrup, or high-fructose corn syrup as the first ingredient. Carbonated beverages with those ingredients in the top two positions would also have been excluded. The state had planned to implement restrictions starting July 31, 2026.
Nearly 734,000 Tennesseans receive SNAP benefits. The average monthly benefit is $161 per person. For a family of four, restrictions on which groceries count could mean navigating label-by-label shopping decisions at checkout.
734,000 Tennesseans received approximately $1.4 billion in SNAP benefits in fiscal year 2022, per the USDA.
The National Center for Law and Economic Justice, which brought the suit alongside law firm Shinder Cantor Lerner, called the ruling a “major step in restoring essential food assistance.” Senior Attorney Katharine Deabler-Meadows said the decision affirms “that the USDA cannot bypass the legal guardrails that establish how SNAP must operate across the country.”
23 States Still Hold Active USDA Waivers
The ruling applies only to the five states named in the lawsuit. As of June 23, 2026, the USDA lists active waiver approvals for 23 states. Those waivers remain in place unless challenged separately in court or withdrawn by the agency.
The food restriction waivers are part of the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again initiative, led by Rollins and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The administration could appeal Judge Jackson’s ruling or seek waivers structured differently to avoid the procedural violations the court identified.
What You Can Do Now
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Call your senators at (202) 224-3121. Ask them to oppose any legislative effort to codify SNAP food restrictions into law. The court blocked the waivers on procedural and statutory grounds; Congress could still attempt to change the underlying statute.
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Contact your state’s SNAP or human services agency if you live in one of the 23 states with active USDA waivers. Ask your state agency whether it plans to implement restrictions in light of the ruling or appeal. Find your state agency at benefits.gov/help.
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If you are a SNAP recipient in a state with a pending waiver, contact the National Center for Law and Economic Justice at nclej.org to report impact. The organization is tracking how the ruling applies to states not covered by the current suit.
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Urge your House representative to block SNAP cuts in the FY2027 budget. Call (202) 225-3121 and tell them: “Do not cut SNAP eligibility or benefits in the budget reconciliation process. 42 million Americans rely on the program.”
Update, July 9, 2026: The legal challenge to SNAP restrictions detailed above is unfolding alongside a funding crisis set to reshape the program nationally. Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, more than 4 million Americans have already lost SNAP benefits, and beginning in fall 2027, states with payment error rates above 6% must cover 5% to 15% of their own benefit costs for the first time. USDA data show states made a collective $10.1 billion in improper payments in fiscal year 2025.
Analyses of newly released USDA data, reported by Stateline, find states could collectively face more than $9 billion in new annual costs. Texas alone could owe an estimated $725 million a year, and New York could face more than $1 billion, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Michigan’s current error rate could cost the state $300 million a year under the new formula.
An Urban Institute and American Public Human Services Association survey of 39 state SNAP agencies found that 11% identified a full withdrawal from SNAP as a potential risk. New Jersey Human Services Commissioner Stephen Cha called the error rate measurement “fundamentally flawed” and renewed calls for Congress to delay implementation. In Massachusetts, nearly 175,000 people lost SNAP benefits between July 2025 and May 2026, according to the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute.
Update, July 22, 2026: A Center on Budget and Policy Priorities analysis covering July 2025 through April 2026 found that more than 1.5 million children nationwide lost SNAP benefits since Congress passed the spending bill President Trump signed last July, representing roughly one-third of the 4.5 million total recipients cut from the program. In New Mexico, more than 10,000 of the approximately 18,000 residents who lost SNAP during that period were children, a share of 56% that ranked among the highest of the 19 states the center examined.
New Mexico faces a penalty of at least $150 million if it does not cut its error rate from 16.8% to below 6% by October 2027. The New Mexico Health Care Authority has imposed new income and household-size verification requirements on applicants and is working to improve data collection and caseworker training to reduce over- and underpayments.
Health Care Authority data reviewed by Source New Mexico show that roughly 7,000 additional New Mexicans lost SNAP between April and June 2026, though those figures do not break out children. Ty Jones Cox, the center’s vice president for food assistance, said at a Wednesday news conference that rising grocery prices and stagnant wages rule out improved economic conditions as a driver of the decline.