June 23, 2026, 3:43 p.m. ET
A federal judge shot down rules restricting food stamp recipients from purchasing certain “unhealthy” foods on Monday, June 22, in a blow to a program touted by the Trump administration.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled in favor of five plaintiffs receiving benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps, who argued that new rules imposed in five states would limit their access to food and could have an impact on families managing conditions like diabetes.
Jackson said that the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the program federally, did not have the authority to approve requests from states to impose restrictions on what can be bought with SNAP benefits to exclude items like soft drinks and sugary foods.
Jackson named Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins specifically in the ruling, saying her actions in encouraging and approving participation in a “food restriction” waiver program bypassed proper channels and contradicted the definition of what qualifies as “food” laid out by Congress.
“The federal defendants and the states may have a genuine desire to improve the health of SNAP households by encouraging healthy choices at the store, and they can take lawful steps to meet those goals,” Jackson said. “But what they cannot do is violate the law and their own regulations along the way.”
SNAP ‘food restriction waiver’ program
Rollins, alongside Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has encouraged states to apply for food restriction waivers, touting the move as another pillar of the Make America Healthy Again movement.
States were further incentivized to take up the effort to “restrict the purchase of non-nutritious items like soda and candy,” per the USDA, when Kennedy made federal funding for rural health care contingent upon applying for a food restriction waiver.
Implementing restrictions on what can be purchased with SNAP benefits based on what is “healthy” has been a popular topic among politicians across the aisle for years, though critics have said that there is little evidence such rules would improve health outcomes and have expressed concerns about inconsistent and subjective definitions as to what is “nutritious” or “healthy.”
“The court’s ruling is a major step in restoring essential food assistance to the millions of families that rely on SNAP nationwide,” Katharine Deabler-Meadows, an attorney for the plaintiffs at the National Center for Law and Economic Justice, told Reuters.
The USDA defended the program after the ruling and implied that it would move forward with attempts to restrict the program.
“The idea that taxpayer funds should not be used to purchase junk food should not be controversial,” the USDA said in a statement to Reuters. “USDA will not be backing down from the fight to Make America Healthy Again, including for families and communities reliant on SNAP.”
5 states’ SNAP rules shot down by judge
The ruling applies specifically to pilot programs implemented in Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee and West Virginia, though USDA data shows a total of 23 states have applied for the waivers. While waivers are specific to each state, they largely restrict the purchase of “sugary” items like soda and candy. Each has a different definition of what items are banned.
Before the ruling,
- Colorado banned SNAP users from purchasing soft drinks.
- Iowa banned soft drinks, sweetened drinks, candy, certain sweetened foods and other prepared food items.
- Nebraska banned the purchase of soda, soft drinks and energy drinks and planned to add candy.
- Tennessee banned them from buying processed foods and beverages such as soda, energy drinks and candy.
- West Virginia banned the purchase of soda.
Other states with SNAP food restrictions
Jackson’s ruling applied specifically to the five states listed above, raising questions about the enforceability of waivers in the 18 others that have applied or implemented their own restrictions.
The USDA has approved waivers banning the purchase of the following in 18 additional states:
- Arkansas: Soda, fruit and vegetable drinks under 50% juice, energy drinks, unhealthy drinks and candy
- Florida: Soda, energy drinks, candy and prepared desserts
- Hawaii: Soft drinks
- Idaho: Soda and candy
- Indiana: Soft drinks and candy
- Kansas: Candy and soft drinks
- Louisiana: Soft drinks, energy drinks and candy
- Missouri: Candy, prepared desserts and certain unhealthy beverages
- Montana: High‑sugar beverages, energy drinks, candy and prepared desserts
- Nevada: Candy and sugar‑sweetened beverages
- North Dakota: Sweetened beverages, energy drinks and candy
- Ohio: Sugar‑sweetened beverages
- Oklahoma: Soft drinks and candy
- South Carolina: Candy, energy drinks, soft drinks and sweetened beverages
- Texas: Sweetened drinks and candy
- Utah: Soft drinks
- Virginia: Sweetened beverages
- Wyoming: Sweetened, carbonated beverages
Trump administration has made major changes to SNAP
For 60 years, the USDA under presidents of both parties has denied state requests to restrict SNAP-eligible foods, saying it could not waive the definition of “food” for purchase with SNAP benefits that Congress set in law, USA TODAY previously reported.
The Trump administration began granting waivers in 2025, despite no change in the law, saying it had pilot project authority to test the impact of excluding some foods on health and nutrition.
The waivers are just one piece of the administration’s larger changes to the country’s biggest nutrition assistance program, which supported more than 37 million low-income Americans as of March 2026.
Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” passed in July 2025, cut an estimated $186 billion from SNAP funding through 2034, according to the Congressional Budget Office. It also added new restrictions to the program, including expanded work requirements. Earlier in June, a separate judge blocked the Trump administration from enforcing new conditions for states to receive billions of dollars in SNAP funding, which included provisions related to immigration, “gender ideology” and “fair athletic opportunities” for women and girls.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that roughly 4 million people lost benefits between July 2025 and March 2026 as a result. At least 808,000 of those were children, based on data from 13 states.
To qualify for SNAP, households must be at or below 130% of the poverty line, meaning they earn no more than 30% more than the federal poverty guideline, which in 2026 was $15,960 for a single person; $27,320 for a three-person household; and $38,680 for a five-person household. A large number of recipients are elderly, disabled or children.
SNAP benefits are determined by states and funded by the USDA. Recipients must recertify regularly to maintain eligibility. Typically, benefits can only be provided for three months within 36 months, unless additional work-related requirements apply. Approved recipients are given a finite timeline to access their benefits.
Contributing: Reuters; Sara D. Wire, USA TODAY