ATTORNEY GENERAL RAOUL WINS PERMANENT BLOCK OF TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S SNAP PENALTIES

ATTORNEY GENERAL RAOUL WINS PERMANENT BLOCK OF TRUMP ADMINISTRATION'S SNAP PENALTIES

September 18, 2026

Court Also Rules that Lawful Permanent Residents Remain Eligible for Food Assistance

Chicago - Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced today that a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon has permanently blocked the Trump administration from penalizing states, including Illinois, with potentially millions of dollars in penalties related to their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) operations.

The ruling makes permanent a preliminary injunction the court issued in December 2025. The judge also ruled in favor of Raoul and the coalition of attorneys general on every claim, striking down the administration's guidance restricting food assistance for lawful permanent residents and rejecting its assertion that states were not entitled to a required "grace period" enabling them to properly implement the new guidance.

"The SNAP program is the country's most important anti-hunger program, providing access to food for millions of families while supporting local grocers and merchants who are critical to our state's economy," Raoul said. "I'm pleased that the court sided with our coalition and blocked these unreasonable penalties and unlawful eligibility guidance that would have harmed the state's ability to provide vital services to residents in need."

In November 2025, Raoul, as part of a coalition of attorneys general, filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration after it moved to cut off SNAP benefits for tens of thousands of lawful permanent residents and set a retroactive deadline that put states at risk of paying hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties. The administration later reversed its position on eligibility for lawful permanent residents but continued to argue that its guidance was lawful, and that states could be penalized for certain actions, because a required "grace period" had, in practice, already expired before the administration finished issuing guidance on the changes.

The court found that the administration's deadline was unlawful, and that the administration's guidance improperly excluded certain lawful permanent residents, including former refugees and people granted asylum, from food assistance they are legally entitled to receive. In addition, the court found that the administration's deadline was unlawful as it related to other changes to SNAP eligibility calculations from the 2025 budget bill.

Joining Attorney General Raoul in filing this lawsuit were the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.