Attorney General Mayes Secures Order Halting Trump Administration’s Push to Use SNAP Information for Mass Surveillance Agenda

PHOENIX – Attorney General Mayes today secured a preliminary injunction temporarily blocking the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s demand that states turn over personal and sensitive information about millions of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients. This July, Attorney General Mayes joined a lawsuit against the Trump administration alleging that this demand violates multiple federal laws and the U.S. Constitution. 

“Donald Trump’s illegal demand that states hand over sensitive data about families who rely on food assistance is an outrageous abuse of power and I am proud to have secured a court order preventing it,” said Attorney General Mayes. “Arizonans who turn to SNAP to feed their families should not have to fear that their personal information will be swept into Trump’s mass surveillance agenda. My office will continue to fight to protect Arizonans' privacy and ensure that federal agencies follow the law.”

SNAP is a federally funded, state-administered program that provides billions of dollars in food assistance to tens of millions of low-income families across the country. SNAP applicants provide their private information on the understanding, backed by long-standing state and federal laws, that their information will not be used for unrelated purposes. In an attempt to bully states into compliance, USDA has repeatedly threatened to withhold administrative funding for the program if states fail to comply with its unprecedented demand for data — effectively forcing states to choose between protecting their residents’ privacy and providing critical nutrition assistance to those in need. 

A copy of the order is available here.