A federal judge in California has ruled that the Treasury Department is not allowed to deny incarcerated individuals stimulus money under the CARES Act despite currently being in prison, according to the Washington Post. The government had previously decided that these people would not get stimulus checks, owing to their incarcerated status, but Judge Phyllis Hamilton of the Northern District of California said that this action was both arbitrary and against the law. Judge Hamilton noted that the CARES Act specifies that nonresident aliens, estates or trusts, and people who are dependents on someone else’s tax return are barred from receiving stimulus cash. But the law makes no mention of prisoners, and so they are entitled to their money just as much as anyone outside.

Initially, the IRS sent nearly 85,000 payments totaling $100 million to incarcerated people, according to a June report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA). After TIGTA raised concerns about the payments to prisoners, the IRS reversed course, declaring that these payments are not allowed under the Cares Act and seizing them. The court case arose as a class action lawsuit filed by incarcerated individuals whose payments were intercepted.

Judge Hamilton ruled that the payments intercepting by the government must be returned to the prisoners. She further ordered the IRS to extend to Oct. 30 a deadline for incarcerated individuals to file paper returns to get their money before the end of the year, and to stop telling prisons that inmates are not eligible for stimulus funds. The government is appealing the decision.

As prisoners await payments for the first round of stimulus funding, the country waits with bated breath for a possible second round as negotiations for another package continues. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) referred to the White House's latest offer of $1.8 trillion (to the Democrats' $2.2 trillion) as a "miserable and deadly failure" and overall said that the package was inadequate. As talks drag on, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he would advance a single bill reviving the Paycheck Protection Program as part of a piecemeal approach, but  the White House is now opposing this strategy in favor of one giant package, the president himself tweeting that they should "go big or go home."