Attorney General Rayfield Wins Court Order Protecting SNAP Recipients’ Sensitive Personal Information

Attorney General Dan Rayfield won an important victory in the case to protect the privacy of millions of people throughout the country who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for food assistance. In a lawsuit brought by Attorney General Rayfield and a coalition of 20 other attorneys general and the state of Kentucky, the District Court for the Northern District of California ordered a temporary restraining order preventing the Trump administration from demanding states turn over personal information of all residents who receive SNAP. Attorney General Rayfield and the coalition sued the administration in July, arguing that this highly sensitive data, which includes home addresses, Social Security numbers, recent locations, immigration statuses, and more, would likely be shared across federal agencies and used for immigration enforcement, in violation of the law.

"No Oregonian should have to choose between putting food on the table and protecting their family's privacy," said Attorney General Rayfield. "This ruling means parents can keep feeding their kids without worrying that their personal information will be misused or turned against them. SNAP is about fighting hunger, not about immigration enforcement."

Both federal and state laws prohibit states from disclosing personally identifying SNAP data except under narrow circumstances. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), which administers SNAP, has requested that states submit personally identifying information, including names, dates of birth, personal addresses, and Social Security numbers, of all SNAP applicants and recipients since January 2020. The USDA has threatened states with potential SNAP funding cuts if they refuse to comply. As a result of USDA's new demand, states have been put in the impossible position of either violating the law by complying or protecting their residents' personal information while jeopardizing millions of dollars in funding used to administer the SNAP program.

About one in six people in Oregon receive SNAP, which amounts to roughly 751,000 people. While undocumented immigrants are generally ineligible to receive SNAP benefits, immigrants who have citizen children may and often do seek benefits on their children's behalf. The data requested by USDA would, if improperly shared, permit federal immigration authorities to apprehend the identities and locations of such individuals.

In a temporary restraining order, the District Court blocked USDA's demand for the plaintiff states to turn over SNAP recipients' data and prevented USDA from withholding SNAP funding.

Joining Attorney General Rayfield in filing the lawsuit are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia, as well as the state of Kentucky.