Key Takeaways
On June 22, 2026, a federal court struck down USDA approvals of SNAP food restriction waivers in Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee, and West Virginia.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled the USDA exceeded its authority under the Food and Nutrition Act and skipped a required 30-day public notice.
The decision covers five of 23 state waivers and could become a roadmap for challenges to the rest.
A federal court struck down the USDA's approval of SNAP food restriction waivers in five states on June 22, 2026, ruling that the agency overstepped its legal authority. Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. invalidated the demonstrations in Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee, and West Virginia in Aragon v. Rollins, according to Civil Eats and the Food Research and Action Center.
The waivers let states bar SNAP participants from buying items like soda and candy with their benefits. Since 2025, the USDA has approved 23 such waivers, a sharp break from decades of practice in which both parties, including the first Trump administration, denied them. The five plaintiffs were SNAP recipients, among them a participant with diabetes who relied on small cans of soda and juice to treat blood-sugar drops, and a Tennessee mother whose daughter with a restrictive eating disorder had few qualifying safe foods.
Jackson found the USDA approved the projects under a pilot-project provision meant to improve program efficiency, when food restrictions fall under a separate section that requires rigorous evaluation and evidence. The court also held the agency skipped a required 30-day notice in the Federal Register, despite repeatedly describing the projects as historic and unprecedented.
The restrictions had become a signature win for the Make America Healthy Again movement, promoted by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Rollins said the administration would keep fighting and argued that SNAP dollars should not buy junk food, per Civil Eats.
"what they cannot do is violate the law and their own regulations"
Amy Berman Jackson, U.S. District Judge
The ruling lands as the same agency presses a broader SNAP overhaul, having recently relocated the program to regional hubs and flagged recipients driving luxury cars, and facing a House hearing on June 25 that will test its SNAP fraud claims. The pattern is hard to ignore. A benefit system increasingly run on contested claims and procedural shortcuts was checked here only because five recipients went to court.
People Also Ask
What did the court rule in Aragon v. Rollins?
A federal judge ruled on June 22, 2026 that the USDA exceeded its authority and skipped required public notice when it approved SNAP food restriction waivers, blocking them in five states.
Which states had their SNAP food restrictions struck down?
The decision invalidated waivers in Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee, and West Virginia. The USDA had approved 23 state waivers in total.
Can SNAP recipients buy soda and candy again in those states?
In the five states named in the ruling, the restrictions may not proceed. Waivers in other states stay in effect unless the USDA withdraws them or another court blocks them.
Can the USDA appeal the SNAP ruling?
Yes. The USDA may appeal, and the decision applies only to the five challenged states, though it may serve as a roadmap for challenges elsewhere.