DOJ sues Michigan over data on 1.4 million SNAP recipients

A lawsuit filed quietly, revealed five days later

The Department of Justice filed, on June 26, 2026, a federal lawsuit against the state of Michigan in the Grand Rapids court, demanding the transfer of personal data on 1.4 million recipients of the SNAP food assistance program. The existence of this lawsuit was only made public on June 30, according to the Detroit Free Press.

This lawsuit doesn't target only Michigan: Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota are also facing similar proceedings, according to reports shared on the social media accounts of several local outlets, including WLNS and CBS Minnesota.

What the March 2025 executive order actually changed

This legal offensive rests on a March 2025 executive order signed by Donald Trump, which requires states to hand over detailed personal data on SNAP recipients to the USDA, including names, dates of birth, addresses, and Social Security numbers, going back up to five years.

That order immediately triggered massive resistance: as early as July 2025, a coalition of 21 attorneys general, including Dana Nessel for Michigan, filed a lawsuit to block the data collection, citing privacy rights violations.

A fraud figure that's hard to verify independently

The Department of Justice claims, in its complaint against Michigan, that a preliminary analysis of data already submitted by 29 states that complied with the order suggests there could be up to $3 billion in undetected waste, fraud, and abuse each year in those states alone, according to the Detroit Free Press.

The USDA also stated, on June 24, 2026, that SNAP's payment error rate stood at 10.6% for fiscal year 2025, representing $10.1 billion in incorrect payments nationwide, a figure cited in the DOJ's complaint against the four holdout states.

What this figure doesn't say

A payment error rate doesn't automatically equal intentional fraud: it also includes administrative mistakes, changes in circumstances not reported in time, or calculation errors made by the agencies themselves. Blurring the two categories together, as the DOJ's messaging implicitly does, deserves to be flagged as a shortcut.

No source reviewed confirms that all, or even most, of the amount cited actually stems from deliberate fraud by recipients rather than structural administrative errors.

A courtroom win secured as early as fall 2025

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel joined a coalition of 21 attorneys general back in July 2025 to challenge the legality of this data collection. That coalition won its case in October 2025, when federal judge Maxine Chesney, in San Francisco, issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration from penalizing states that refused to hand over the data, according to NPR.

That ruling temporarily shielded the 21 states and the District of Columbia involved from the threat of having federal administrative funds cut off — sums running into the billions of dollars each year for running the SNAP program.

A new offensive that gets around the injunction

The June 26, 2026 lawsuit against Michigan appears to be a separate attempt by the DOJ to obtain through the courts what the administration couldn't impose by threatening to withhold funds. The department maintains it is within its rights to demand this data "to fulfill its statutory responsibilities overseeing the SNAP program," according to language cited by the Detroit Free Press.

Michigan's Department of Health and Human Services, which administers the state's SNAP program, declined to comment on June 30, citing the ongoing litigation.

Extremely sensitive data demanded in bulk

According to the Food Research & Action Center, the USDA demanded access to five years of personally identifiable data on SNAP applicants and recipients, including Social Security numbers, dates of birth, home addresses, codes tied to immigration status, and the full history of applications and participation, even for people who never received benefits.

This level of detail goes well beyond what would be necessary for a simple performance audit of the program, according to privacy advocacy groups cited in several legal analyses of the case.

Minnesota's refusal shows the scale of the disagreement

Minnesota's Department of Children, Youth, and Families, also targeted by a similar lawsuit, called the request "unprecedented" and warned it threatened the privacy of millions of families, according to video coverage circulated on July 1, 2026. Local food assistance organizations have also raised concerns about the chilling effect this data collection could have on families who need help.

This collective refusal by several states, despite repeated federal pressure, illustrates the scale of the constitutional and ethical disagreement this policy has stirred up for more than a year.

An attorney general on the front line since 2025

Dana Nessel has positioned herself as one of the most active figures in states' legal resistance to this federal policy, joining the coalition of attorneys general as early as summer 2025 that won the injunction from Judge Maxine Chesney. This new case puts her back at the center of a direct confrontation with the Trump administration.

This position exposes Nessel to sustained political and legal pressure, in a climate where the federal administration keeps filing lawsuits against Democrat-led states that refuse to comply with its administrative demands.

A standoff bigger than SNAP alone

This conflict between Michigan and the DOJ fits into a broader pattern of confrontations between the Trump administration and several Democrat-led states over issues ranging from immigration to climate, where the question of personal data is becoming a new battleground, legally and politically.

This dynamic raises a fundamental question about the American federal balance of power: how far can the central government go in demanding sensitive citizen data from a state without full prior judicial approval?

The risk of discouraging people from applying for help

Food assistance organizations, cited in coverage from July 1, 2026, worry that such a massive collection of personal data will discourage eligible families from applying for SNAP assistance, fearing their personal information could be used for other purposes, particularly around immigration.

This fear isn't hypothetical: the requested data explicitly includes codes tied to immigration status, according to the Food Research & Action Center, which fuels concern among mixed-status families where some members may be undocumented.

1.4 million people affected in Michigan alone

In Michigan alone, roughly 1.4 million people rely on the SNAP program, according to figures cited by the Detroit Free Press. That number gives a sense of the scale of the personal data collection the federal government is demanding, in this one state alone.

Across the four states targeted by this new wave of lawsuits, that means several million people whose most sensitive personal data could be handed over to the federal government if the courts rule in the DOJ's favor.

A repeated pressure strategy against holdout states

This SNAP case adds to a growing list of legal confrontations between the Trump administration and Democrat-led states, where the threat of withholding federal funds or filing direct lawsuits serves as a political pressure tool disguised as rigorous administrative management.

The fact that this new lawsuit against Michigan comes after the October 2025 legal defeat suggests an administration ready to open multiple legal fronts rather than accept an unfavorable court ruling as final.

A question of trust in federal institutions

Beyond the budgetary question of alleged fraud, this case raises the issue of how much trust American citizens can place in their federal institutions when it comes to protecting their most personal data, an issue that goes well beyond the usual partisan divides.

This standoff between Washington and several state capitals reflects a governance fracture that, if it persists, could have repercussions well beyond the SNAP program alone.

Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota in the same boat

Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota are facing similar lawsuits filed by the DOJ around the same time, according to posts from WLNS and CBS Minnesota dated June 28 and 30, 2026. This coordinated approach against multiple states at once suggests a deliberate federal strategy rather than a series of isolated decisions.

Minnesota's Department of Children, Youth, and Families has already publicly voiced its opposition to the request, calling it unprecedented in scale and in its implications for the privacy of the families involved.

Cross-state coordination that could intensify

Faced with this wave of simultaneous lawsuits, it's likely that the attorneys general of the four states involved will closely coordinate their legal defense, much like the coalition of 21 attorneys general that already won its case in October 2025 against a similar demand.

This inter-state solidarity remains, for now, the main legal bulwark against what several local officials view as an overreach of federal power into the personal data of the country's most economically vulnerable citizens.

A legal battle far from over

The June 26, 2026 lawsuit against Michigan, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota is probably not the final chapter of this conflict between the Trump administration and states refusing to hand over personal data on their SNAP recipients. The outcome of this new proceeding will largely depend on how federal courts interpret the balance between legitimate oversight of a public program and protecting citizens' privacy.

Dana Nessel's position, along with that of her counterparts in the other states, will remain decisive for how this case plays out, in a climate where the standoff between Washington and Democrat-led state capitals shows no sign of easing.

What this case symbolizes more broadly

This conflict illustrates, once again, the persistent tension between stated goals of fighting budgetary fraud and the means used to pursue them, when those means directly affect the privacy of millions of the most economically vulnerable citizens.

This case deserves to be followed with the same rigor as any other major institutional conflict, without giving in to either minimizing or exaggerating its real stakes.

By Maxime Marquette, columnist

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I am not a journalist but a columnist and analyst. My expertise lies in observing and analysing the geopolitical, economic and strategic dynamics that shape our world. My work is to take political strategies apart, to understand global economic movements, to put the decisions of international actors in context and to offer analytical perspectives on the changes that are redefining our societies.

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