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Related video above: News coverage from when the SNAP restrictions on soda and candy were being debated in 2025.
(NEXSTAR) – With one strike of the gavel, a federal judge has reversed the SNAP restrictions states have been slowly rolling out since the start of the year.
Starting on Jan. 1, states have been adding new rules on what can and can’t be bought with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funds. SNAP, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program, helps an estimated 1 in 9 Americans buy groceries.
While the rules differed state-by-state, they largely focused on banning the purchase of sodas, energy drinks, candy and other “junk” food. It was seen as part of the Trump administration’s push to “Make America Healthy Again.”
By the start of June, 23 states had been granted permission by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to implement these types of restrictions.
That all changed Monday, when U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled the Agriculture Department has not been following the definition of “food” as outlined 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,” she wrote. “But what they cannot do is violate the law and their own regulations along the way.”
What does the ruling mean for SNAP recipients?
The judge said in her ruling Monday that she was vacating and remanding the approval letters granted by the USDA to restrict SNAP purchases on sugary drinks and foods. Unless the case is appealed, and a higher judge reaches a different conclusion, that means the government cannot limit the use of SNAP benefits to improve nutrition.
While the legal challenge in this case was filed by beneficiaries in only five states – Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee and West Virginia – 18 others have implemented or were planning to implement the same kinds of restrictions. This ruling will have legal implications for those states as well.
How this court ruling plays out in real time will likely differ depending on the state you live in. While the program is federally funded, it’s administered at the state level, meaning implementation of new rules often follows a different timeline in each place.
Will the rules change again?
The Trump administration has not said if it plans to appeal the ruling in a higher court. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins posted on social media that the administration “will keep fighting to Make America Healthy Again.”
Some activists oppose the soda and candy bans, saying it unduly stigmatizes the food choices of lower income people instead of focusing on improving the diets of all Americans.
“It’s an opportunity to say you’re doing something, while really just stigmatizing a single group of people for choices that everybody in America really makes,” Chris Bernard of Hunger Free Oklahoma told Nexstar’s KFOR.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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