A federal judge on Monday put the brakes on a Trump administration and multi-state effort to ban SNAP recipients from buying soda, candy, and other nutritionally questionable items with their benefits. The ruling blocks a policy push led by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, who had urged states to restrict purchases under the $100 billion federal program as part of Kennedy's "Make America Healthy Again" agenda.

Several states had requested USDA approval to bypass standard SNAP purchasing rules, which the agency granted, according to court filings. But U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson decided that the government cannot unilaterally redefine what counts as food just because it disapproves of the nutritional content. The decision effectively tells the administration that if it wants to dictate what low-income Americans can buy, it needs to go through Congress rather than issuing executive-style nudges.

Kennedy has praised the restriction move, but the judge's ruling suggests that "Make America Healthy Again" may need to wait for legislative approval before it can police the nation's soda aisles.