Attorney General Jeff Jackson Wins Second Case Protecting SNAP Food Assistance

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026
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RALEIGH - Attorney General Jeff Jackson won a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture over its changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). More than 1.4 million North Carolinians receive SNAP assistance to purchase food.

"In the middle of a worsening hunger crisis, we need to do everything we can to protect food assistance for North Carolina families," said Attorney General Jeff Jackson. "We cannot be a state that lets our children go to bed hungry, and I'm going to do everything in our power to fight food insecurity in our state."

When Congress passed H.R. 1, it made changes to who is eligible for SNAP and included language intended to make sure that state agencies were verifying SNAP participants and correcting errors in details about their eligibility. The legislation requires states starting in 2028 to cover a portion of SNAP funding costs, which are usually fully paid by the federal government, if their error rate is too high.

When USDA unveiled guidance months later detailing the SNAP eligibility changes, it gave states as little as 24 hours to implement those changes before beginning to treat them as errors that could trigger the financial penalties. That timeline was logistically impossible, but USDA threatened to withhold $425 million in SNAP funds for 1.4 million North Carolinians if the new guidance was not implemented immediately and correctly.

Attorney General Jackson sued over the impossible deadline, arguing that it violated what Congress had put into law and USDA's own regulations and that it would put SNAP recipients in danger of losing food assistance. A court in December entered a preliminary injunction in favor of Attorney General Jackson, and in his latest ruling, the judge granted summary judgment to the states. In its opinion, the court noted that "defendants have placed plaintiffs in an impossible situation to timely implement H.R. 1's changes to SNAP through contradictory, absent, and misleading messaging."

North Carolina is currently facing a worsening hunger crisis, with about one in six North Carolinians, including about one in five children, dealing with hunger. Feeding the Carolinas reports that food banks in North Carolina have seen increases in need of 30% or more. In several communities, including those still recovering from Hurricane Helene, food banks have seen a record number of people coming to them for help in a single month. A decrease in SNAP access would strain food banks even more.

Attorney General Jackson previously won a case against the USDA during the 2025 government shutdown for withholding $230 million in food assistance for 1.4 million North Carolinians, including nearly 600,000 children.

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