Court blocks Trump admin’s demand for SNAP data following Illinois AG lawsuit

ILLINOIS (WCIA) — Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and 21 other states are celebrating a victory in a case where they filed a lawsuit to prevent the Trump Administration from accessing information on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients.

In a news release on Friday, Raoul said the District Court for the Northern District of California ordered a temporary restraining order. This means that, for the time being, the Trump administration cannot demand that states turn over personal information on its SNAP applicants and recipients. 

“I join others in our coalition in applauding the court in this decision, which ensures SNAP recipients can receive the benefits they rely on without the concern of their private personal information being involuntarily shared outside the program,” Raoul said. “SNAP provides access to food for millions of Illinois families while also supporting thousands of local grocers, farmers’ markets, and other merchants who are critical to states’ economies, and I will continue to protect their privacy.” 

Raoul and the coalition sued the administration in July. They argued that the data, which includes names, address, Social Security numbers and more, would be shared across federal agencies and used for immigration enforcement.

According to Raoul, federal and state laws generally prohibit states from sharing “personally identifying SNAP data.” But the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) — the agency which administers SNAP — has requested all personally identifying information for all SNAP applicants and recipients since January 2020.

Raoul also said that if states don’t comply, the USDA has threatened to cut program funding. Now, states are are being forced to consider two options: comply, and violate the law, or protect residents’ personal information and potentially lose millions in funding.

Nearly two million people rely on SNAP in Illinois. Of those households, 33% have children, 30% have adults over 60 years of age, and 27% contain a person with a disability, Raoul said.

Raoul said that for more than 60 years, the federal government and state agencies have worked to make sure only eligible individuals receive SNAP benefits. But, those systems do not require that states turn over information — especially without regulating how that information is used or shared.

The attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington and Wisconsin, and the state of Kentucky joined Raoul in filing the lawsuit.