Ledesma v. Block

ENGEL, Circuit Judge.

This appeal challenges the constitionality, on First Amendment and equal protection grounds, of the 1980 and 1981 amendments to the Food Stamp Act of 1977, 7 U.S.C. § 2011, et seq. The challenged amendments remove from eligibility for food stamps those persons engaged in labor strikes unless their households had been eligible to receive food stamps before the strike.

I

The amendments were enacted in the Food Stamp Act Amendments of 1980, Pub.L. 96-249, § 114, 94 Stat. 357, 361 (1980), and the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981, Pub.L. No. 97-35, § 109(a)(1), 95 Stat.…