California v. USDA

The court must determine whether the Food and Nutrition Act's text provides the USDA with unambiguous authority to demand state-held personal information of SNAP recipients, or whether the Act presumes state custodianship of applicant data absent explicit statutory delegation. If the demand exceeds statutory authority, the Privacy Act's restrictions on federal collection of personally identifiable information reinforce the prohibition. Additionally, if the demand conditions continued SNAP funding on disclosure without clear legislative notice, it may violate the unconstitutional conditions doctrine under South Dakota v. Dole, particularly given the states' documented concern that mandatory disclosure could deter low-income families from participating in a federally funded safety-net program.