By The Epoch Times | Created at 2026-09-29 17:47:00 | Updated at 2026-09-29 18:52:42
1 hour ago
District Judge James Boasberg, chief judge of the District Court for the District of Columbia, stands for a portrait at E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse in Washington on March 16, 2023. Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post via AP
A federal judge has turned down a bid from 22 states to block the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from accessing welfare data.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg of Washington said on Sept. 28 that the states failed to establish that they would likely have standing to sue over the move, or that they would be irreparably harmed absent a block on the access—two factors necessary for a preliminary injunction.
Standing, or indications the states are being injured by the access and that a court can address the injury, is lacking in part because states have not provided sufficient evidence that disclosure of the welfare data to DHS will damage public trust in a federal welfare program and lead to reduced participation, which the states said would cost them money because they would have to provide services to the affected individuals.
“While such a consequence—and, indeed, Plaintiffs’ logical chain of events—seems plausible to the Court, it cannot rest on its own intuitions; it must, instead, consider the ‘specific facts’ provided,” Boasberg said in a 28-page ruling.
The plaintiffs filed statements from state officials with assertions that the disclosure would have a chilling effect on enrollment in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), the welfare program, but those statements were not accompanied by any supporting factual material, the judge said, such as declarations from welfare recipients.
Even if the states had established standing, their motion would still have been rejected, Boasberg added later, because they have not proven irreparable harm absent an injunction.
That’s partly because the complaints about incurring costs to notify welfare recipients of the disclosures are self-inflicted, he said.
“Courts in this district have consistently held that ‘a preliminary injunction movant does not satisfy the irreparable harm criterion when the alleged harm is self-inflicted,’” the judge wrote.
DHS and a lawyer for the states did not respond to requests for comment by the time of publication.
The plaintiffs include Massachusetts, New York state, and Wisconsin. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, and the District of Columbia are also plaintiffs.
They sued in August over a new rule that allowed the Department of Health and Human Services to share records of TANF recipients with DHS.
“The Trump administration is exploiting a program designed to ensure children do not go hungry and to help needy families get back on their feet in order to fuel its mass surveillance effort,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, said at the time.
Administration lawyers told the judge in a filing that the data-sharing rule complies with federal law and urged him not to grant a preliminary injunction.
The case will now proceed without an injunction, but Boasberg could still rule for the states.
