I am deeply disappointed by your decision to accede to the Trump regime's request for wholesale access to personal information about SNAP recipients. Before I retired from the Vermont Attorney General's Office in 2017, I represented the Department for Children and Families, including the SNAP (or, as we called it, the "threesquares" program) for over a dozen years. I cannot imagine any legitimate purpose for which the federal government would need such access, and I am very doubtful as to the legality of its request or of your compliance. I understand Attorney General Clark shares my doubts, as do twenty other states that have sued rather than submit. Sadly, your acquiescence prevented AG Clark from joining that number. The Trump regime is lawless, cruel, despotic, routinely mendacious, and oppressive towards the poor, the vulnerable, and minorities. It has clearly enunciated authoritarian ambitions, and is universally recognized (outside MAGA) as conducting an active and unrelenting assault on democracy, the Constitution, and personal liberties. Such a regime is not to be complied with except perhaps under extreme compulsion, which does not exist in this instance. If you wish history to regard your administration as akin to that of Vichy France 80 years ago, continue your willing cooperation. Otherwise, you must fight back. I hope this is merely an isolated instance of poor judgment on your part, rather than of "go along to get along." There is no moral basis, no politically tenable rationale other than cowardice, and precious little legal ground for that latter course of action.
