A federal court ruling is reshaping one of the biggest recent fights over what Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients can buy with their benefits. On June 22, a judge in Washington, D.C., blocked USDA-approved food restriction waivers for five states, including Tennessee, where a broader purchase ban had been scheduled to start on July 31.
A judge vacated USDA approvals for five state SNAP food restriction pilots
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled on June 22, 2026, in Aragon et al. v. Rollins that the U.S. Department of Agriculture lacked statutory authority to approve the challenged SNAP food restriction demonstrations in Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee, and West Virginia, according to the court opinion and USDA waiver pages. The case involved SNAP participants from those five states who challenged projects that would have barred some purchases otherwise allowed under federal SNAP rules.
The ruling vacated the approvals rather than narrowing them, which means the waivers challenged in the case cannot move forward in their approved form. USDA’s own SNAP food restriction waiver pages now note the June 22 decision, and state materials in Nebraska also state that the federal court vacated USDA’s approval. That legal step immediately changed the status of the five affected projects.
Before the ruling, USDA had approved a wider set of state waiver requests around the country. A USDA summary posted earlier this year showed target implementation dates that ranged from January 1, 2026, in some states to 2027 and 2028 in others, with different definitions of restricted items by state. But the June 22 decision applied specifically to the five-state lawsuit before Judge Amy Berman Jackson.
Tennessee’s planned July 31 SNAP restrictions are now on hold
For Tennessee readers, the most immediate effect is that the state’s planned July 31, 2026, SNAP restriction rollout has been stopped. A USDA summary of approved waivers said Tennessee’s project was set to restrict purchases of processed foods and beverages such as soda, energy drinks, and candy starting July 31. That start date can no longer proceed under the vacated approval.
What remains in place for Tennessee SNAP shoppers is the standard national eligibility rule for food purchases. USDA guidance says SNAP benefits generally may be used for foods intended for human consumption unless specifically excluded, and the agency’s retailer guidance continues to list hot foods, alcohol, tobacco, supplements with a Supplement Facts label, and nonfood household items as ineligible.
The ruling did not create a new approved list of foods for Tennessee, and the state has not released a new implementation timetable under a different legal pathway. It also did not affect every state that had received or sought a food restriction waiver. The confirmed immediate change is limited to the five states named in the case, and Tennessee’s previously announced July launch is no longer authorized under the vacated waiver.
The dispute centers on how far USDA can go in changing SNAP purchase rules
At the center of the case was a legal question, not a nutritional finding. Judge Jackson wrote that USDA used the wrong part of federal SNAP law when it approved the demonstrations, concluding that the agency did not have authority under that provision to let states test these food purchase restrictions. The court did not say Congress could never authorize such limits, only that the approvals challenged here exceeded USDA’s authority as granted by statute.
That distinction matters because USDA had been encouraging states to seek more flexibility. A USDA waiver page updated earlier this year listed more than 20 states with approved food restriction waivers, showing how quickly the policy had expanded beyond a single pilot. Some states targeted soda only, while others included candy, energy drinks, or prepared desserts.
For SNAP households, the practical result is straightforward for now: in the five states covered by the ruling, benefits remain usable under ordinary federal SNAP purchasing rules unless and until a new lawful policy is approved. For Tennessee, that means the July 31 restriction plan is halted, and recipients should continue seeing the same core food eligibility rules currently used by SNAP retailers.