Attorney General Bonta Sues Trump Administration Over Illegal Demands that States Hand Over Sensitive Personal Data of SNAP Recipients

Move marks latest attempt by Trump Administration to collect unrelated, protected data to fuel mass deportation machine

OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today, leading a coalition of 20 attorneys general with New York Attorney General Letitia James, announced a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) demand that states turn over personal and sensitive information about millions of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients. 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. USDA has suggested that it could withhold administrative funding for the program if states fail to comply — effectively forcing states to choose between protecting their residents’ privacy and providing critical nutrition assistance to those in need. California receives roughly $1 billion a year in order to administer the program, and any delay in that funding could be catastrophic for the state and its residents who rely on SNAP to put food on the table. In a lawsuit being filed today in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Attorney General Bonta and the coalition argue that this demand violates multiple federal privacy laws and the U.S. Constitution.  

“President Trump continues to weaponize private and sensitive personal information — not to root out fraud, but to create a culture of fear where people are unwilling to apply for essential services. We’re talking about kids not getting school lunch; fire victims not accessing emergency services; and other devastating, and deadly, consequences. That is Trump’s vision for America,” said Attorney General Bonta. “This unprecedented demand that states turn over SNAP data violates all kinds of state and federal privacy laws and further breaks the trust between the federal government and the people it serves. The President doesn’t get to change the rules in the middle of the game, no matter how much he may want to. While he may be comfortable breaking promises to the American people, California is not. We will not comply with this illegal demand. We’ll see the President in court.”

For 60 years, California and other states have administered SNAP, which serves as an essential safety net for millions of low-income Americans by providing credits that can be used to purchase groceries for themselves and their family members. In those 60 years, the federal government and state agencies have worked together to build a robust process for ensuring that only eligible individuals receive benefits. In fact, the USDA itself has described SNAP as having “one of the most rigorous quality control systems in the federal government.” Those systems do not, and have never, required that states turn over sensitive, personally identifying information about millions of Americans without any meaningful restrictions on how that information is used or shared with other agencies. 

Yet in May 2025, USDA made an unprecedented demand that states turn over massive amounts of personal information on all SNAP applicants and recipients, including social security numbers and home addresses, dating back five years. Even a year’s worth of SNAP recipient data contains sensitive, personal identifying information on tens of millions of individuals — including more than five million in California alone. The federal government’s stated justifications for its unprecedented data demands, to “prevent fraud and abuse,” are directly contradicted by their own findings.  

Alarmingly, USDA’s demand appears to be part of a coordinated effort by the federal government to collect personal information on Americans from every possible source, to be used to advance this President’s agenda. Public reports indicate that federal officials are amassing huge databases of personal information on Americans and using that data for undisclosed purposes, including immigration enforcement. Already, the Department of Homeland Security has obtained troves of personal information from both the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Health and Human Services Agency, including private medical information and other personal details on Medicaid recipients, which California has already challenged in court. USDA’s attempts to collect data from states about SNAP applicants and recipients appear to be the next step in this campaign.   

USDA’s actions are unprecedented, threaten the privacy of millions of families, and ignore long-standing restrictions on the use and redisclosure of SNAP data. Both federal and state law prohibit California from disclosing personally identifying SNAP data unless strictly necessary for the administration of the program, or if other limited circumstances exist. Those circumstances do not exist here. In today’s lawsuit, Attorney General Bonta and the coalition argue that these demands violate multiple federal privacy laws; fail to meet the public comment requirements for this type of action; exceed USDA’s statutory authority; and violate the Spending Clause. The coalition asks that the District Court declare the Trump Administration’s demands unlawful and block the Trump Administration from conditioning receipt of SNAP funding on states’ compliance with these demands. 

Attorneys General Bonta and James lead the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin, as well as the state of Kentucky, in filing the lawsuit. 

A copy of the lawsuit will be available here.