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# Delaware Wins Permanent Block on SNAP Penalties
- URL: https://www.theamericanquorum.com/state-news-delaware-2026-09-24-a/
- Published: 2026-09-24T06:27:07.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-24T06:27:07.000Z
- Description: A federal judge permanently blocked disputed SNAP deadlines that exposed Delaware and other states to future benefit-cost penalties, while clarifying eligibility for lawful permanent residents from humanitarian groups.
- Author: News Desk
- Tags: Policy, Delaware

A federal judge has permanently blocked the U.S. Department of Agriculture from enforcing a disputed SNAP deadline against Delaware and other plaintiff states, removing the threat that implementation errors could sharply increase states’ future share of benefit costs. Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings [announced the ruling](https://news.delaware.gov/2026/09/23/ag-jennings-permanently-blocks-trump-administrations-snap-penalties/?ref=theamericanquorum.com) Wednesday, Sept. 23.

U.S. District Judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai granted summary judgment to 22 states and the District of Columbia and denied USDA’s cross-motion. His Sept. 17 [opinion](https://attorneygeneral.delaware.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2026/09/SNAP-ECF-107.pdf?ref=theamericanquorum.com) vacated the exclusionary periods in four USDA guidance documents and required the department to give states a full 120 days after issuing an implementation memorandum, along with adequate notice of the required implementation date.

The dispute followed changes Congress enacted in the 2025 budget law. Those changes tied a state’s future contribution to SNAP benefit costs to its payment-error rate and altered several eligibility rules. USDA treated July 4, 2025—the law’s enactment date—as the start of a 120-day grace period, even though it delivered major implementation guidance later. The court found that states received only 64 days after one memorandum, 29 days after another and one day after the noncitizen guidance. A final memo arrived Nov. 14, 13 days after USDA said the grace period had ended.

Kasubhai concluded that the deadline was arbitrary and capricious because USDA departed from past practice without adequate explanation, failed to account for states’ reliance interests and did not provide fair notice. The financial stakes were substantial: under the new system, a state with the then-national average error rate of 11.68% could become responsible for 15% of its SNAP benefit costs beginning in fiscal 2028\. Payment errors include both overpayments and underpayments; they are not, by themselves, a measure of fraud.

The ruling also resolves a separate eligibility issue affecting lawful permanent residents. USDA’s October 2025 guidance listed some former refugees, people granted asylum and other humanitarian immigrants as ineligible, even after they became lawful permanent residents, and omitted them from groups exempt from the usual five-year waiting period. The court declared that lawful permanent residents remain eligible regardless of their prior immigration status and that the five-year wait does not apply to people who are or were members of specified humanitarian groups.

That makes permanent protections Delaware first won through a [preliminary injunction](https://news.delaware.gov/2025/12/18/attorney-general-jennings-secures-court-order-protecting-snap-benefits/?ref=theamericanquorum.com) in December 2025\. USDA later issued additional guidance consistent with the states’ eligibility position, but continued to defend the earlier document and the expired deadline. The final judgment now binds the agency’s treatment of those policies rather than relying on a temporary order or changeable guidance.

For Delaware, the immediate practical effect is administrative and fiscal: under the [court order](https://attorneygeneral.delaware.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2026/09/SNAP-ECF-107.pdf?ref=theamericanquorum.com), state benefit workers receive a lawful implementation period, payment variances cannot be counted under the vacated retroactive schedule, and eligible lawful permanent residents retain access under the clarified rules. Delaware participated in the multistate case, while Oregon and New York led the coalition, according to the [Oregon Justice Department](https://www.doj.state.or.us/media-home/news-media-releases/ag-rayfield-permanently-blocks-trump-administration-snap-penalties/?ref=theamericanquorum.com).