Judge likely to block feds from holding state funding hostage over food stamp data

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — A coalition of states asked a federal judge Thursday to block the government from withholding funding from states that refuse to provide personal information on food stamps recipients.

Senior U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney did not issue a ruling from the bench, but indicated she would grant the plaintiff’s request for a preliminary injunction. The Bill Clinton appointee said an order can be expected as soon as Tuesday, and the existing temporary restraining order will remain in place until an official ruling is released.

A coalition of states led by California filed a lawsuit on June 28 claiming President Donald Trump seeks to build a database of people’s information to target immigrants. The White House says the information is needed for transparency, but the states say the Trump administration is rewriting the rules to punish those who use the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

SNAP is funded by the federal government and administered by the states. Billions of dollars flow through the program, which helps participants put food on their tables. Information requested by the government includes Social Security numbers and home addresses for the past five years.

In a hearing over a preliminary injunction, the government argued that states are required to go through an administrative appeals process before bringing a case to court.

In contrast, the states claimed the statute requiring an administrative process refers to “persons,” which does not include states, so they still have the option of taking the government to court.

Chesney said the states’ argument “looked pretty good” and there was a “good chance” she would rule that administrative exhaustion is not required before taking the case to court. She added that states can be considered a person in some contexts, but only when explicitly included.

Chesney seemed sympathetic to the states’ argument that the law does not mandate they provide SNAP user data to the government when asked, but rather allows them to disclose the information voluntarily if they want to.

“The plaintiffs are reading it as, ‘If you want to give it to them, you can.’ I’m inclined to go along with what the plaintiffs say at this time,” she said.

Chesney added that the government’s argument that states should provide certain information to help root out fraudulent claims was not “unreasonable.” However, due to the ambiguity of the language, she said the law can be interpreted to allow states to voluntarily comply with requests for information, but it does not require them to do so.

“When you read it in context, Congress knows how to use certain phrases to mean things,” she said. “If they wanted to mandate cooperation, they should have used mandatory language, which they did not do.”

Chesney additionally indicated she would “probably rule” that the states have shown a hardship if they do not receive the funding already allocated to them.

Representatives for either party did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On Sept. 19, Chesney granted the states a temporary restraining order blocking the government from tying funding to provide the personal information of people who receive food stamps.

“The court finds plaintiff states are likely to show the SNAP Act prohibits them from disclosing to USDA the information demanded in the formal warnings and, consequently, that they have shown a likelihood of success on their claim that USDA, in making such demand, acted in a manner contrary to law,” she said in her order.

The only state not included in the relief was Nevada, which Chesney said did not file a declaration explaining that withholding SNAP funds would hinder its ability to administer benefits to individuals like the other plaintiff states. She added that the USDA provided evidence that Nevada “had fully complied with USDA’s request for SNAP data” as of Aug. 12.

On Sept. 29, Chesney granted the states’ request to extend the order to include Pennsylvania.

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