Arkansas to start SNAP candy and soda limits despite court ruling

Arkansas plans to begin blocking SNAP recipients from using benefits to buy candy and soda on Wednesday, even after a federal judge rejected similar restrictions in several other states. The move puts the state’s new rules into immediate tension with a recent court decision over how the federal government approved such programs.

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced the rollout Monday, according to the Associated Press. She tied the policy to concerns about chronic disease, including obesity, diabetes and heart disease, and argued that the state should not help pay for products that she said can contribute to health problems later treated through Medicaid.

SNAP, formally the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, is the federally funded, state-administered grocery benefit once commonly called food stamps. The AP reported that the program serves nearly 42 million people, roughly one in eight Americans.

Judge rejected similar pilot projects

Last week, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington vacated the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s approval of SNAP restriction pilots in Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee and West Virginia, according to the AP. Jackson said her decision did not judge whether the policy was wise, but found that the projects were not allowed under the statute USDA relied on and that the agency had not followed its own rules for pilot programs.

Arkansas’ program is being launched under the same regulations as the pilots Jackson set aside, the AP reported. Georgetown University law professor David Super told the AP that federal district courts generally no longer issue nationwide injunctions after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year, but said Arkansas’ decision tests that limit.

Sanders acknowledged the ruling in her announcement and said Arkansas would proceed rather than wait while health outcomes worsened and public costs rose, according to the AP.

Health claims and policy debate

The Arkansas governor’s office pointed to Stanford University research finding that barring food stamp purchases of sugary drinks could lower obesity and type 2 diabetes rates. The AP also reported that broader research on whether SNAP purchase limits improve diets and health remains mixed.

Arkansas is among 23 states that received waivers allowing restrictions on some sugary foods or drinks, according to the AP. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins have backed the bans as part of the “Make America Healthy Again” campaign.

Rules differ by state. The AP reported that some states sought limits covering both candy and sugary beverages, while others aimed only at sugary drinks.

Debates over what SNAP should cover have run for years in statehouses and Congress. Current SNAP rules bar the purchase of hot prepared foods, while a bipartisan group of U.S. senators has introduced legislation that would allow benefits to be used for rotisserie chicken at grocery stores, according to the AP.

Stores must enforce the limits

Retailers will be responsible for applying the Arkansas restrictions at checkout. Steve Goode, executive director of the Arkansas Grocers and Retail Merchants Association, told the AP he could not predict how ready businesses would be, calling the change substantial after years of stable SNAP rules.

Goode said some members with stores in other states had already handled similar policies with acceptable results. He also said Arkansas hired a third-party vendor to build a list of banned products for stores to use, and the AP reported that the state created an app to help SNAP beneficiaries check whether items remain eligible.

This story draws on original reporting from Fortune.