MILWAUKEE -- A federal judge has halted a loan forgiveness program for farmers of color in response to a lawsuit alleging the program discriminates against white farmers.
U.S. District Judge William Griesbach in Milwaukee issued a temporary restraining order Thursday suspending the program, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
The program pays up to 120% of direct or guaranteed farm loan balances for Black, American Indian, Hispanic, Asian American or Pacific Islander farmers. President Joe Biden's administration created the loan forgiveness program as part of its covid-19 pandemic relief plan.
Emily Newton, the lead attorney representing the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the lawsuit, didn't immediately respond to an email Friday seeking comment on the restraining order.
"The Court recognized that the federal government's plan to condition and allocate benefits on the basis of race raises grave constitutional concerns and threatens our clients with irreparable harm," Rick Esenberg, president and general counsel with the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, which filed the lawsuit, told the Journal Sentinel.
In the months since Congress included around $4 billion in the latest stimulus bill to forgive loans for minority farmers, thousands of them have been pushing to finally see the money. The USDA promised to start paying for loans this month.
Minority farmers have maintained for decades that they have been unfairly denied farm loans and other government assistance. Federal agriculture officials in 1999 and 2010 settled lawsuits from Black farmers accusing the agency of discriminating against them.
"Over the last 100 years, policies were implemented that specifically twisted in a way that disadvantaged socially disadvantaged producers," U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said. "There's no better example of that than the covid relief efforts. Billions of dollars went to White farmers, because the system is structured in a way that gives them significant advantages."
But the program, which was opposed by all 49 GOP senators, faced quick legal challenges.
The Wisconsin Institute filed suit in April arguing white farmers aren't eligible, amounting to a violation of their constitutional rights. The firm sued on behalf of 12 farmers from Arkansas, Iowa, Kentucky,Minnesota, Missouri, Oregon, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
Among them was Adam Faust, a double amputee and the owner of a dairy farm near Chilton, Wis.
"There should absolutely be no federal dollars going anywhere just based on race," Faust told the Journal Sentinel.
The lawsuit identifies the Arkansas plaintiff as Lori L. Watkins. She was added as a plaintiff in a May 19 amendment to the original lawsuit.
The lawsuit says: "Plaintiff Lori L. Watkins raises chickens, cattle, sheep, and goats on a 100-acre farm in southwestern Arkansas. Ms. Watkins' primary business is raising and selling about 500,000 broiler chickens each year. She has a USDA-backed loan on her four chicken houses, and four other FSA [Farm Service Agency]-direct loans. Ms. Watkins is otherwise eligible for the loan forgiveness program in Section 1005 of ARPA [American Rescue Plan Act], except that she is white."
In April, former President Donald Trump adviser Stephen Miller formed the America First Legal Foundation to sue in Texas on behalf on behalf of Sid Miller, a White farmer who is also the Texas agriculture commissioner. The lawsuit claimed that the USDA program "disrupts our common progress toward becoming a more perfect union."
The Wisconsin group's lawsuit noted that the White farmers could make additional investments in their property, expand their farms, and purchase equipment and supplies if they were eligible for the loan forgiveness benefit.
"Because plaintiffs are ineligible to even apply for the program solely to their race, they have been denied the equal protection of the law and therefore suffered harm," according to the lawsuit.
Information for this article was contributed by staff members of The Associated Press, by Andrea Salcedo of The Washington Post and by Stephen Steed of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.