Jackie Anderson v. Earl Butz, as Secretary of the Department of Agriculture

The essence of appellees’ claim below was that Secretary of Agriculture Butz improperly included rent subsidies paid by the Department of Housing and Urban Development [HUD] as “income” for food stamp purposes. Appellees are heads of households qualified for food stamp coupons under the Federal Food Stamp Act ( 7 U.S.C. §§ 2011 et seq. (Supp.1976)) and are members of a certified nationwide class which includes all low income tenants of housing subsidized under the provisions of the Housing Act of 1937, as amended, or Section 101 of the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1965, as amended, who are, have been or will be required to have included in their household “income” for purposes of the food stamp program, the Housing and Urban Development subsidies paid to their landlords.

The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the appellees. The Secretary appeals from the court’s order declaring his implementing instruction unenforceable and ordering that appellees be refunded any sums they were overcharged.

I.

THE INSTRUCTION

On August 5, 1974, the Secretary revised Section 2262.10 Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), Food Stamp (FS) Instruction 732-1 to require that…