Food Stamp Ruling Still in Force, Judge Says

A judge says the state must follow a court order against denying food stamps to legal immigrants even though the order is being appealed.

The state Department of Social Services contended that the ruling issued last week by Sacramento Superior Court Judge John R. Lewis was automatically stayed during its appeal.

But Lewis said Tuesday that as a matter of law his preliminary injunction remains in effect until the matter is decided by a state appellate court.

Welfare rights advocates had asked the judge for clarification.

Curtis Child of Northern California Lawyers for Civil Justice accused the state of being “obstructive.”

“It’s legal gamesmanship,” Child said Wednesday. “Really what they’re trying to do is get around that preliminary injunction. Whether there was some political call made on that I don’t know. But this court made it clear that it intended for the state to comply with the preliminary injunction.”

A Social Services Department spokeswoman was not immediately available for comment.

The state directed county welfare offices in late September to begin denying new food stamp applications from immigrants as part of the new federal welfare overhaul.

But anti-poverty attorneys filed a class-action lawsuit arguing that the state had moved too quickly and failed to adopt clear rules on which immigrants would qualify for exemptions.

Lewis ruled in their favor Oct. 31, granting the injunction. But Gov. Pete Wilson predicted that the order would be in effect less than 10 days because the state was pursuing fast-track regulations to implement the new federal law.

Child claimed that the state was trying to avoid public comment on the proposed regulations.

Under the welfare overhaul, the state will begin next April cutting off benefits to an estimated 373,000 legal immigrants already receiving food stamps.

An estimated 436,000 of the 3.2 million low-income Californians receiving food stamps are legal immigrants. Illegal immigrants are not eligible for food stamps, which average about $182 per month per household.