Federal Judge Blocks Trump SNAP Junk-Food Restrictions in Blow to 'Make America Healthy Again' Push

A federal judge appointed by Barack Obama struck down the Trump administration's program to let states bar Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients from buying soda, candy, and other sugary products — dealing a direct setback to the White House's "Make America Healthy Again" agenda. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled Monday that Congress, not the Agriculture Department, holds the authority to define what qualifies as food under SNAP. The White House immediately signaled the decision would not stand unchallenged.

The Ruling and Its Legal Logic

Jackson, who has served on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia since her 2011 appointment by then-President Obama, found that Congress had already clearly defined the scope of permissible food purchases under SNAP. The USDA cannot use administrative waiver authority to override that definition, even under the banner of efficiency improvements or public health goals, she wrote. The ruling effectively invalidates waivers the USDA had approved for more than 20 states, including Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee, and West Virginia, where restrictions on candy, soft drinks, and energy drinks had already taken effect.

The lawsuit was brought by SNAP recipients in those five states and was argued by the National Center for Law and Economic Justice and Shinder Cantor Lerner.

Administration Pushback Is Swift

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins called the decision the work of "an activist judge" and said the USDA would not retreat from its effort to reshape SNAP purchasing rules. Rollins and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have jointly championed SNAP reform, traveling to states and working with governors to steer recipients toward what they describe as healthier choices. White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told Fox News Digital the administration was elected with a mandate to address chronic disease and that the ruling "will not be the final say."

A USDA spokesperson separately said the idea that taxpayer money should not fund junk food purchases "should not be controversial" and reiterated the department's intention to press ahead.

A Policy Battle With Precedent

The episode echoes a near-identical effort in 2011, when then-New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg sought Obama administration approval to block SNAP recipients from purchasing sugary drinks. The USDA rejected that request, citing insufficient evidence that the restriction would meaningfully improve health outcomes — the same evidentiary gap that has dogged defenders of food-purchase restrictions ever since.

The Monday ruling narrows the administrative path available to the Trump administration and shifts the locus of any future action firmly to Congress. For the MAHA coalition — spanning the USDA under Rollins and HHS under Kennedy — the decision compresses the legislative runway needed to institutionalize dietary guardrails in the nation's largest food-assistance program before the political calendar tightens.