A federal court has cut four states out of the national push to keep SNAP benefits from buying soda and candy. USDA still lists 19 states with an approved food-restriction waiver and a target start date, and only some of those are enforcing their rules today.
The split matters at the checkout lane. A household in Indiana or Texas already runs into a purchase limit, while one in Nebraska or Nevada has a date on the calendar but no limit yet, and one in Iowa or Colorado has neither.
Which side of that line a state sits on comes down to two things: the target implementation date USDA publishes for it, and whether the June court order reached its waiver. The open question for most households is whether the state is one of the 19, and what an EBT card can still buy there.
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How USDA’s list adds up to 19 states
USDA’s food-restriction waiver table has 23 rows, one for each state that asked to restrict purchases of what the agency calls non-nutritious items like soda and candy. Four of those rows, Colorado, Iowa, Tennessee and West Virginia, carry a court-order note in place of a date.
The four vacated states sit inside the 23, not on top of it. Subtract them and 19 states remain with an approval and a target implementation date: Arkansas, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming.
The court order that removed Colorado, Iowa, Tennessee and West Virginia
The vacatur came on June 22, 2026, in Aragon et al. v. Rollins et al., No. 1:26-cv-00861, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. USDA’s Tennessee waiver page says the court “ordered that FNA’s approval of the waiver be vacated and that the waiver’s implementation may not proceed.”
The order reached USDA’s approval of each waiver, not a state law. With the approval vacated, SNAP households in those four states can keep buying soda and candy with benefits, and USDA’s table shows no start date for any of them.
Eight states are enforcing limits now, and eleven are still ahead
By the dates in USDA’s table, eight of the 19 have already passed their target: Indiana and Utah on January 1, 2026, Idaho and Oklahoma on February 15, Louisiana on February 18, Texas on April 1, Florida on April 20 and Arkansas on July 1. In those states, purchase limits are running.
Eleven have not reached theirs. Montana, North Dakota, South Carolina and Virginia are listed for November 1, 2026, and Nebraska for December 1. Kansas and Missouri follow on February 15, 2027, Wyoming on February 1, 2027, Hawaii and Ohio on April 1, 2027, and Nevada on February 1, 2028.
A target date is a plan, and the limit does not necessarily start that day. USDA’s page for Virginia records a February 25, 2026 approval to move the start from April 1 to October 1, 2026, while the summary table lists November 1, so the state page and the table can differ.
What each state’s waiver actually bars
The restricted list is set state by state, and it is not the same everywhere. USDA’s South Carolina page shows an approval dated December 10, 2025 that bars candy, energy drinks, soft drinks and sweetened beverages, and a later August 3, 2026 change to how the waiver defines a restricted soft drink.
Virginia’s request, by contrast, rewrites the SNAP definition of food to exclude sweetened beverages. A household in one state may lose candy and energy drinks at the register while a neighbor in another loses only sweetened drinks, so the state’s own page is the item to read before a grocery run.
The same sorting applies to the vacated states. USDA’s table gives Colorado, Iowa, Tennessee and West Virginia the words “court order” where the others have a date, which tells shoppers there that no start is scheduled while the order stands. The agency’s approval was the only thing the court set aside, so the case does not change what SNAP itself covers anywhere.
Each approval also runs for a fixed period. The South Carolina and Virginia letters both say the demonstration project is approved for two years, so the limits are tied to a window and not written into the program permanently.
Where a household stands depends on the state’s row
Anyone on SNAP in one of the eight enforcing states can expect declined items at checkout now. Anyone in the eleven pending states has a countdown, with the earliest limits landing on November 1, a few days from now.
The four vacated states sit apart, and the court order could still be appealed or changed, which would show up as a new row entry. Because the table was last updated October 13, 2026, a state’s row is worth rechecking on USDA’s waiver list before relying on a date.
Is my state one of the 19, and what can my card still buy?
A purchase limit changes the grocery run without changing the paperwork behind it. A household that is watching a November 1 or December 1 start date can easily lose track of the recertification and change-reporting dates that keep the benefit itself coming.
The SNAP & Medicaid Renewal Organizer covers SNAP recertification, the senior rules that raise a benefit, and reporting changes and EBT problems, with 51 state packs and a renewal and reporting calendar. Its Part 7 walks through reporting changes and EBT problems, the step a household hits when a card is declined at the register.
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
