Judge Strikes Down Trump Plan To End Food Stamps For 700,000 Unemployed Americans

The Trump Administration’s cruel rule to take food assistance away from hundreds of thousands of Americans was scheduled to go into effect on April 1, 2020. A court injunction in late March halted it temporarily as reported by Smart Dissent here.

Now in mid-October 2020, a Federal judge just blocked the effort entirely, calling it “arbitrary and capricious.”

A federal judge on Sunday formally struck down a Trump administration attempt to end food stamp benefits for nearly 700,000 unemployed people, blocking as “arbitrary and capricious” the first of three such planned measures to restrict the federal food safety net.

In a scathing 67-page opinion, Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell of D.C. condemned the Agriculture Department for failing to justify or even address the impact of the sweeping change on states, saying its shortcomings had been placed in stark relief amid the coronavirus pandemic, during which unemployment has quadrupled and rosters of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program have grown by more than 17 percent with more than 6 million new enrollees.

This is a major win to ensure the Trump administration cannot strip food out of the hands of those who need it. Particularly during a global pandemic when many Americans are struggling, Trump's attempt to prevent people from getting food assistance is cruel and empty-hearted.

Attorneys general from D.C., Maryland, Virginia, New York, California and numerous other states alleged that the change — to slash nearly $5.5 billion from food stamp spending over five years — would require “drastic cuts” for adults without children, ignored local labor market conditions and was based on no evidence.

Howell’s ruling granted summary judgment to a coalition of 19 states along with Washington, D.C., and New York City and private groups who sued to stop the new rule, finalized in December, to eliminate states’ discretion to waive work requirements in distressed economic areas.

SNAP, known for decades as "food stamps," is for families to put food on the table. Food so children don’t have to go to bed hungry. SNAP gives on average just $1.40 per meal. It lifts 8 million out of poverty. And Republicans are still actively trying to eviscerating it several other ways.