Our system of government is based on distrust. We revolted against a monarchy and decided to decentralize power, with the hope that bad people and bad decisions are less likely to wield actual power. We not only divide power among three branches of government, but we also divvy up power between a federal government and state governments.
You can be forgiven if you think our system of horizontal separation (three branches of government) and vertical separation (federal and state governments) is collapsing all around us. The enlargement of the executive branch, to the detriment of the legislative branch and the states, didn’t begin with President Donald Trump. And it won’t end with him unless Congress and the states reclaim their constitutionally endowed power, or judges and the public push presidents back into their lane.
If any government entity wants to put these conditions on the receipt of federal funds, it should be Congress, and not the executive branch through the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Recently, a federal judge did just that and pushed back against the Trump administration’s attempt to condition $74 billion in nutrition and farm aid to states — including Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits — on the states’ decision to acquiesce to Trump administration policies on transgender people; diversity, equity and inclusion; immigration enforcement; and other topics. We are, to be clear, talking about money that goes to feed the poorest among us, including tens of millions of children.
U.S. District Judge Myong Joun, who has apparently read the Constitution, put at least a temporary stop to the administration’s attempts to coerce the states into action.
The case involves a suit by 20 Democratic attorneys general and the District of Columbia against the Trump administration. Their claim is straightforward: The Trump administration said states and D.C. won’t receive money to feed poor families and farmers unless they comply with the Trump administration’s policy priorities.