BREAKING!! COURT ISSUES INJUNCTION AGAINST ADMINISTRATION’S “YOU’VE GOT A NICE SNAP PROGRAM HERE, COLORADO, IT’D BE A SHAME IF ANYTHING HAPPENED TO IT”
Today the Federal Court for the District of Colorado issued a preliminary injunction, enjoining the Trump administration from forcing Colorado to take part in a “pilot project” in order to continue to receive certain SNAP funds, and to not be penalized by the withholding of SNAP funds.
This lawsuit, originally filed in October of 2025, actually started out as a lawsuit fighting Trump’s efforts to move Space Force out of Colorado. However in January of this year Colorado amended its complaint after receiving a letter advising it that it must comply with a new pilot project related to SNAP. That letter, dated December 17th, 2025, gave Colorado just *30 days* to recertify “all SNAP households in Arapahoe, Adams, Jefferson, Boulder, and Douglas counties,” *including* “by accounting for the income and resources of any excluded household members, conducting in-person interviews, and using federal eligibility tools like the improved, cost-free Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) Program database.”
And of course Colorado had to preserve documentation of all of its efforts, and the data associated therewith, the implicit threat being that Colorado could be required to turn over all of that data to the administration.
It then went on to say that “Failure to participate in this pilot project as specified by USDA will trigger noncompliance procedures,” could affect Colorado’s participation in SNAP, and then *had the cheek* to close with “Thank you for your continued work to help address the needs of vulnerable Americans.”
Fortunately, our awesome AG, Phil Weiser, was right on it, and filed an amended complaint to the original Space Force lawsuit, which was a great way to get this issue into the Court quickly, not to mention to bring to the same judge’s attention what *else* the administration was pulling.
In a lovely 52-page opinion and order (included for Notes from the Front members along with a copy of the administration’s ‘pilot project’ (code name “Screw Colorado”) letter), Judge Jackson snapped right back (see what I did there?) at the administration, granting a preliminary injunction prohibiting the administration from enforcing the pilot project, and also forbidding the administration from “taking any adverse action against Colorado for its refusal to comply with any of the demands of the Recertification Letter.”
(Recall that a preliminary injunction is different from an emergency injunction (also known as a temporary restraining order or TRO) in that a preliminary injunction means that the Court has actually held a hearing, heard arguments, and reviewed facts and evidence, prior to issuing the injunction.)
You can read the handwriting on the wall from the opening words of the opinion:
“On December 18, 2025, with no advance warning, Colorado Governor Jared Polis received a one-page letter from an undersecretary at the United States Department of Agriculture (“USDA”) stating that Colorado (“the State”) was being “require[ed]” to participate in a “pilot project” related to the State’s administration of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (“SNAP”).
The letter is as astonishing as it is brief. Without identifying any specific allegations, it states that, due to nationwide benefits fraud, including “multiple requests [by USDA] to [Colorado] to fulfill its administrative responsibilities,” the State is directed to recertify the eligibility of “all SNAP households” in five of its most populous counties “within 30 days of the receipt of this letter.”
And it only gets better from there, culminating in the order:
“For the reasons stated above, Colorado’s Motion for Preliminary Injunction, is hereby GRANTED, and USDA is PRELIMINIARILY ENJOINED from compelling Colorado’s participation in the pilot project or taking any adverse action against Colorado for its refusal to comply with any of the demands of the Recertification Letter.
SO ORDERED this 16 th day of March, 2026.”
Oh snap!
Notes from the Front members: The opinion and order, as well as the letter, are in your inbox now.
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