DELAWARE- Attorney General Kathy Jennings announced Wednesday that a federal judge in the U.S. District Court (OR), along with 21 other attorney generals have sided with her permanently blocking the Trump Administration from penalizing states with fines over SNAP.
In November 2025, Attorney General Jennings, the District of Columbia and 21 other attorneys generals sued the Trump Administration after it vowed to stop SNAP benefits for tens of thousands of families and set a deadline that put states at risk of paying hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties and fines.
Delaware Department of Justice says the court found that the Administration's deadline was unlawful, and that the Administration's guidance improperly excluded certain "lawful permanent locals", including former refugees and people granted asylum, from food assistance they were legally entitled to receive.
“This entire ordeal was a blatant attempt by the Trump Administration to take food away from families in need, to destroy a plank of the social safety net, and to degrade our state’s financial standing, I’m proud to say that we made sure they failed on every count.” said Attorney General Kathy Jennings.
According to the Delaware Department of Justice, the decisions means states cannot be penalized under the unlawful deadline the Administration tried to set, and the standard five year waiting period for SNAP does not apply to lawful and permanent Delaware locals who were previously refugees, asylees, or other humanitarian immigrants.
