A federal judge in California has blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from acting on warning letters threatening to withhold federal money for food assistance from states that refused to turn over information sought by the agency.
U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney found in favor of 22 states, issuing a preliminary injunction halting the U.S. Department of Agriculture from withholding millions of dollars in food assistance if they didn’t turn over information requested by the agency.
The judge had already issued a temporary restraining order.
The judge, appointed by former President Bill Clinton, found that the states were likely to show that federal law prohibits them from disclosing the information demanded in the formal warnings threatening to withhold the food-assistance money.
“I’m gratified the court continues to find that this outrageous and unprecedented demand for the private and sensitive information of tens of millions of Americans should not be allowed to go ahead,” Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said.
“I’m proud to fight for hungry Americans who just want to feed their families and fight against Donald Trump’s inhumane, mass-surveillance agenda,” Ellison said in a statment after the ruling was handed down last week.
The USDA is demanding that the states turn over records identifying applicants or recipients of food assistance such as names, birth dates, addresses and Social Security numbers. The USDA has suggested the request is intended to root out fraud and abuse.
While Kansas is not part of the case, Gov. Laura Kelly’s administration has been closely watching developments as it fights back against a similar demand from the USDA, which has threatened to withhold $10.4 million a quarter for noncompliance.
The Kelly administration has been eyeing the case, saying that it would be instructive in how to proceed in its own battle with U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“An adjudication in that case will provide persuasive authority as to the lawfulness of USDA’s data request,” lawyers for the Kelly administration wrote in a court filing in response to a failed lawsuit brought by Attorney General Kris Kobach.
“Such adjudication carries more weight than claims by federal and state executive branch officers in USDA or the Kansas Attorney General’s office that such request is lawful.
“If USDA’s actions are found in violation of federal law in the plaintiff states, so too, does USDA violate federal law in Kansas,” the governor’s legal team wrote.
The Kelly administration declined to comment on the ruling Monday morning, saying it could not comment on pending litigation. The USDA also declined to comment.
Chesney found that when a state provides information under the law cited by the federal government, the recipient is subject to strict limits on how the information is used.
And the states argued that the USDA had announced its intent to use the information in ways beyond those permitted under the law.
In particular, USDA said it had the right disclose the data to a number of entities, including those not administering assistance programs, and for purposes other than the administration or enforcement of the programs, the judge wrote.
The agency said that when a record indicated a violation of the law, the document would be turned over to the appropriate agency, “whether federal, foreign, state, local, or tribal” for enforcement, investigation or prosecution.
The judge wrote that plaintiff states are required by the food-assistance program to safeguard information they obtain from applicant households and are permitted to disclose the information for limited purposes set out by law.
“The court finds plaintiff states are likely to show (that federal law) prohibits them from disclosing to USDA the information demanded in the formal warnings and, consequently, for such additional reason, have shown a likelihood of success on their claim that USDA, in making such demand, acted in a manner contrary to law,” Chesney wrote.
The Kelly administration has been resolute against turning over the information, saying that state and federal law protect personal identifiable food-assistance data except when necessary to administer the program.
The administration says the requested data includes sensitive personal information for more than 730,000 Kansans who lived in a household that applied for or received food-assistance benefits from Jan. 1, 2020, to July 30, 2025.
The state has appealed the USDA warning threatening to cut off the federal food-assistance money for not turning over the information.
The appeal suspends the Trump administration from cutting off the funds until the matter is resolved, something that could take weeks, or now maybe months because of the government shutdown.
The board that will hear the state’s appeal sent an email to the Kansas Department for Children and Families, saying that its hearing officers, lawyers and members of the appeals board may be furloughed because of the shutdown.
The state was told that if the government shutdown affecting USDA operations lasted for more than a week, the Oct. 22 deadline for submitting appeal materials would be pushed back with a new deadline when the government resumes operations.
The extension was granted through a federal regulation that allows the board to give itself additional time “as it may reasonably require to complete any of its assigned responsibilities.”
