Altimont owns Carmen’s Corner Store in Hagerstown, Maryland, a community where around 20 percent of people rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to buy their groceries. But a federal agency decided that Altimont can never accept SNAP as a form of payment at Carmen’s.

That decision isn’t because Altimont has done anything wrong as a business owner, but rather because of unrelated crimes from 2004, for which he’s already served his time.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) permanently bans anyone with drug, alcohol, tobacco, or firearms convictions from participating in the SNAP program—a harsher punishment than the agency dishes out to those who have actually defrauded the program. That’s not just irrational, it’s also unconstitutional, which is why Altimont teamed up with our organization, the Institute for Justice (IJ), to file a federal lawsuit against the agency on Tuesday.

  • Flying Squid
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    51 year ago

    I did it and anyone else can too.

    “I didn’t die from cancer, so no one would die from cancer if they just took the right steps and stopped making excuses.”

      • Flying Squid
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        11 year ago

        This isn’t about me, nor is that any of your business.

        • @[email protected]
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          fedilink
          11 year ago

          Only on lemmy do people doubt you when you say you were poor. Like “yeah you were poor, but not poor enough”

          • Flying Squid
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            11 year ago

            Maybe if you ever defined ‘poor’ in terms of income, which you didn’t. All I know is that ‘poor’ to you doesn’t include homeless people.

          • Flying Squid
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            31 year ago

            Poverty is a disease. It’s a myth that anyone can escape it through hard work. You did, if you really were poor and I would love your definition of poor here, because you got lucky.

            Were you living in a shack with a tin roof with no water or electricity? Were you living in a tent and eating out of dumpsters? I doubt it.

            • @[email protected]
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              fedilink
              01 year ago

              I’m speaking specifically in the US and we are talking about being poor, not homeless. That is a little different. No one in this conversation is sitting on a pc or phone or laptop from a fucking tent in the Phillipines. Quit moving goalposts to fit your narrative.

            • @[email protected]
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              fedilink
              -11 year ago

              Next you are going to say “what about mentally ill, learning disabilities… etc.” Not what we are discussing.