A federal judge in Washington has vacated the approvals that let four states bar SNAP benefits from buying soda, candy and other items, and has ordered that the restrictions may not go forward. The states are Colorado, Iowa, Tennessee and West Virginia.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service now lists all four as blocked by court order. Restrictions in more than a dozen other states are approved, and several have not yet started.
What did the court order say?
On June 22, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled in Aragon et al. v. Rollins et al., No. 1:26-cv-00861. According to the USDA’s food restriction waiver page, the court ordered that the department’s approval of the waiver be vacated and that the waiver’s implementation may not proceed.
A waiver is the permission USDA gives a state to depart from SNAP’s normal rules, which let households buy nearly any food. Vacating the approval cancels that permission. USDA’s table lists no implementation date for any of the four.
Can a SNAP card still buy soda where I live?
In Colorado, Iowa, Tennessee and West Virginia, the restrictions cannot be put in place while the order stands. Households there are not facing the purchase limits USDA had approved. In other states, the answer depends on the date a state’s waiver takes effect.
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USDA lists those dates as targets, not confirmed effective dates, and a household should check its own state agency’s notice. Among the states already past their target dates are Indiana and Utah (January 1, 2026), Idaho and Oklahoma (February 15, 2026), Louisiana (February 18), Texas (April 1), Florida (April 20) and Arkansas (July 1).
Which items were the four states trying to restrict?
Each state asked to restrict something different. USDA’s table lists the items as follows:
- Colorado: soft drinks.
- Iowa: nearly all taxable foods, excluding plants and seeds for growing food.
- Tennessee: processed foods and beverages, including soda, energy drinks and candy.
- West Virginia: soda.
Colorado’s request was the narrowest, limited to soft drinks, while West Virginia’s named soda alone. So the order covers more than soda and candy. Iowa’s request was the broadest on the list, and Tennessee’s reached processed foods generally.
Which restrictions are still scheduled to start?
Several states have target dates in the coming months, according to the same USDA page:
- November 1, 2026: Montana, North Dakota, South Carolina and Virginia.
- December 1, 2026: Nebraska, with soda, soft drinks and energy drinks first and candy added March 1, 2027.
- February 1, 2027: Wyoming.
- February 15, 2027: Kansas and Missouri.
- April 1, 2027: Hawaii and Ohio.
- February 1, 2028: Nevada.
The items differ by state. South Carolina’s list covers candy, energy drinks, soft drinks and sweetened beverages, Missouri’s covers candy, prepared desserts and certain beverages, and Ohio’s covers sugar-sweetened beverages and all fountain drinks. Among states already past their dates, Arkansas covers soda, energy drinks, candy and certain juice drinks, Florida adds prepared desserts to soda, energy drinks and candy, and Texas covers sweetened drinks and candy.
Does the court order reach other states?
The order concerns four specific approvals, and the USDA page still shows the other states as approved. It does show that a federal court can undo a waiver after USDA has signed off on it, and USDA describes the dates above as targets rather than confirmed start dates.
For households that are on SNAP, the practical rule is to rely on the state’s own notice about what the card can buy, since the restrictions are written state by state. USDA’s page is the free place to see whether a state is approved, blocked or waiting on a start date, and it is updated as states and courts act.
Not sure which SNAP rules apply in your state?
A household in a state with a November 1 or December 1 start date can find the card refused at the register for items it bought last month, while a household in Colorado, Iowa, Tennessee or West Virginia is covered by the court order for now.
The SNAP & Medicaid Renewal Organizer includes 51 state packs and a renewal and reporting calendar, so a household sees its own state’s rules and dates in one place and keeps recertification on schedule.
Get the state pack and renewal calendar in the SNAP renewal organizer →
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
