MADISON, Wis. – Attorney General Josh Kaul and a multistate coalition won an important victory in the case to protect the privacy of millions of people throughout the country who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for food assistance.
On Thursday, a federal judge for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued a temporary restraining order preventing the Trump administration from acting on its demand that states turn over personal information of all residents who receive SNAP, which is known as “FoodShare” in Wisconsin. Attorney General Kaul and the coalition sued the administration in July, arguing that the federal government’s demand is unlawful.
”Keeping people’s sensitive personal information secure is common sense,” said AG Kaul. “The Trump administration shouldn’t be trying to obtain the information at issue in this case.”
Both federal and state laws prohibit states from disclosing personally identifying SNAP data except under narrow circumstances. In May 2025, USDA demanded 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 934,000 in Wisconsin from 2024 alone.
In a temporary restraining order, the District Court blocked USDA from acting on its demand for the plaintiff states to turn over SNAP recipients’ data and prevented USDA from withholding SNAP funding.
Joining Attorney General Kaul in filing the lawsuit are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, and the District of Columbia, as well as the state of Kentucky.
View this press release on the DOJ website here.
