LANSING, Mich. (WZMQ) – Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is joining a coalition of 20 attorneys general suing the Trump administration over what they call an illegal demand for states to hand over sensitive personal data of SNAP recipients.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, challenges the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s recent directive that states must submit personal information, such as Social Security numbers and home addresses, on all applicants and recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, dating back five years.
Nessel called the move “yet another attempt by the Trump Administration to illegally use personal, sensitive data to fuel the president’s political agenda under the guise of fighting fraud and abuse.”
“This administration has made it clear it’s willing to weaponize the federal government and endanger vulnerable people to advance their agenda,” Nessel said. “Michigan families deserve to have their personal information protected, and I will keep fighting until they receive exactly that.”
Michigan distributes about $254 million in SNAP benefits each month to approximately 1.4 million residents. Nessel warned that any delay or disruption in funding could have “catastrophic” consequences for families who rely on the program to feed themselves and their children.
Federal privacy law prohibits states from disclosing personally identifiable SNAP data unless it’s directly necessary for administering the program. Nessel and other attorneys general argue that USDA’s demand not only violates these laws but also exceeds its legal authority and defies constitutional protections.
Nessel also expressed concern over how the data could be used, citing past actions by the Trump administration to collect and repurpose sensitive information from federal agencies for immigration enforcement and other undisclosed purposes.
“We’ve already paid for this program through our tax dollars,” Nessel said. “Now they want to deny those benefits unless we sacrifice our residents’ privacy.”
Nessel is joined in the suit by attorneys general from Arizona, California, Colorado, and 17 other states.
