Four states that asked to bar SNAP shoppers from buying soda with their benefits still have no start date for those limits. A federal court vacated the approvals on June 22, 2026, and almost four months later USDA’s waiver table shows nothing to replace them. The states are Colorado, Iowa, Tennessee and West Virginia.
SNAP is the food benefit program once called food stamps. A state that wants to limit what recipients can buy needs a waiver from USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service, and the four waivers in question were wiped out by a ruling from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Nebraska, a fifth state, lost its waiver in the same order.
What USDA’s table says about the four states
Every state on USDA’s SNAP food restriction waiver table carries an implementation date except these four, which show “Court order” in the date column. The page was last updated October 13, 2026. It lists no stay and no new approval for any of them.
That leaves a plain answer for anyone on SNAP in Colorado, Iowa, Tennessee or West Virginia who wonders whether soda or candy can still be bought with benefits. Nothing on the table shows a purchase limit in effect or scheduled for any of the four, and the court note says the waivers cannot go forward. Until USDA posts a new approval with a date, shoppers there should see no change at the register.
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The four requests were not identical. The table lists what each state wanted to restrict:
- Colorado wanted to bar soft drinks.
- Iowa wanted to bar nearly all taxable food, excluding food-producing plants and seeds, the broadest request of the group.
- Tennessee wanted to bar processed foods and beverages, such as soda, energy drinks and candy.
- West Virginia wanted to bar soda.
Iowa and West Virginia each link to a retailer notice titled “Stop Waiver Implementation,” the only notices on the page tied to the court order. Colorado and Tennessee list no retailer notice at all.
What the judge ruled, and the appeal
The note in the table’s date column says the court “ordered that FNA’s approval of the waiver be vacated” and that the waiver’s implementation “may not proceed.” It names the case as Aragon et al. v. Rollins et al., number 1:26-cv-00861. When a court vacates an approval, the approval stops existing.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson wrote that USDA cannot act with the force of law without approval from Congress, and she added that the ruling does not judge whether the pilots are good policy. The suit was brought by SNAP recipients in the five states. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins called the judge “activist” and said the administration would keep fighting. The Food Research & Action Center, which opposed the bans, said other approved restrictions stay in effect unless USDA withdraws them or a court separately invalidates them.
The legal reasoning turned on the statute, not on soda. The court held that USDA improperly waived the statutory definition of “food” and sidestepped public notice requirements, according to a National Law Review summary. USDA then filed a notice of appeal in early September, the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture reported.
Nebraska got a date back, the other four did not
The fifth state in the ruling was Nebraska. Its row on the USDA table no longer carries the court note. It now lists December 1, 2026 for soda, soft drinks and energy drinks, with candy added March 1, 2027.
No such date appears for Colorado, Iowa, Tennessee or West Virginia. Their rows have nowhere to point until the appeal ends or USDA issues a new approval, and the table is where either would show up.
Where the rest of the country stands
The ruling did not reach the other waivers. According to the printable version of the same USDA table, which carries the identical 23 state entries, eight states already restrict purchases, with start dates from January 1, 2026 in Utah and Indiana through July 1, 2026 in Arkansas.
Besides Utah, Indiana and Arkansas, the states already restricting purchases are Florida (April 20, 2026), Idaho (February 15), Louisiana (February 18), Oklahoma (February 15) and Texas (April 1). The restricted items differ by state, from soft drinks alone in Utah to candy, energy drinks and prepared desserts in others.
Montana, North Dakota, South Carolina and Virginia are set for November 1, 2026. Wyoming follows on February 1, 2027, Kansas and Missouri on February 15, 2027, and Hawaii and Ohio on April 1, 2027. Nevada is last, on February 1, 2028.
What stays the same while the soda limit is on hold
A frozen purchase limit changes nothing about the rest of the program. Recertification dates, income reporting rules and the paperwork a caseworker asks for still run on each state’s own calendar, and they decide whether the benefit arrives at all.
USDA’s waiver table is the place to watch for any change in the four states. The state SNAP office is the place to confirm dates on a specific case.
Is the soda limit on hold where a SNAP card is used?
The fight in these four states is over what a SNAP card can buy, but the dates that decide whether the card works at all have not moved. A renewal notice that sits unopened, or an income change that goes unreported, can end benefits however the court case turns out.
The SNAP & Medicaid Renewal Organizer was built for that gap. It includes 51 state packs and a renewal and reporting calendar, plus a renewal document checklist for the papers a caseworker asks to see.
Get the state pack and renewal calendar for SNAP households where a purchase limit is on hold →
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
