Ilaian
Ilaian v. United States Department of Agriculture, Food & Nutrition Service
Opinion
Opinion
Jones, J.
ORDER DENYING PLAINTIFFS’ APPLICATION FOR STAY OF ADMINISTRATIVE ACTION
Hani and Khawla Ilaian (“Plaintiffs”) are the owners of Near East Foods, a market that specializes in “halal” food and caters to a large number of food stamp recipients. The Food and Nutrition Service (“FNS”) disqualified Plaintiffs (revoked their right to accept food stamps from recipients) because it found that Plaintiffs had “trafficked” in food stamps in violation of the Food Stamp Act (“the Act”). “Trafficking” is defined as “the buying or selling of coupons, ATP cards or other benefit instruments for cash or consideration other than eligible food.” 7 C.F.R. § 271.2 . The sanction of disqualification is apparently required by 7 C.F.R. § 278.6 (e), which states that “The FNS regional office shall: (1) Disqualify a firm permanently if: (I) personnel of the firm have trafficked as defined in § 271.1.”
Plaintiffs request a stay of their disqualification from participating in the Food Stamps Program (“the Program”) pending their appeal on the merits, also to be decided by this Court. Therefore, the Court must decide if it has the power to issue a stay when disqualification is based on trafficking.