New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin today, as part of a coalition of 20 attorneys general, filed 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 providing 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. Federal funding represents roughly $190 million—roughly half of what New Jersey’s annual administration costs for the program, and any delay in that funding could be catastrophic for the state and the residents who rely on SNAP to put food on the table. In a lawsuit filed today, Attorney General Platkin and the coalition argue that this demand violates multiple federal privacy laws and the U.S. Constitution.
“We will not be intimidated by the Trump Administration’s threats to illegally withhold SNAP funding unless we agree to violate the privacy of our residents,” said Attorney General Platkin. “Under New Jersey and federal law, data provided by SNAP recipients is only to be used for administering this critical program. The Trump Administration’s unprecedented demand for data such as Social Security numbers, addresses, and more is illegal and would violate the privacy of our residents. We have long been committed to fighting for data privacy, and that is why we are joining this lawsuit to protect New Jersey residents.”
For 60 years, New Jersey 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 approximately 824,020 individuals in New Jersey. The federal government’s stated justifications for its unprecedented data demands, to “prevent fraud and abuse,” are directly contradicted by their own findings.
USDA’s demand is 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. Since President Trump re-entered the White House in January, 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. The Department of Homeland Security has already obtained troves of personal information from both the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, including private medical information and other personal details on Medicaid recipients, which New Jersey 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 New Jersey from disclosing personally identifying SNAP data unless strictly necessary for the administration of the program, or other limited circumstances exist. Those circumstances do not exist here. In today’s lawsuit, Attorney General Platkin 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.
Attorney General Platkin joins the attorneys general of California, New York, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin, as well as the Governor of Kentucky in filing the lawsuit.
