White farmers sue federal government over race-based loan forgiveness program

A group of white farmers from Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota and Ohio sued the federal government on Thursday, April 29, 2021, arguing that a Biden administration debt-relief program illegally excludes them from loan forgiveness because of their race, according to the Associated Press and CBS News.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Green Bay, Wisconsin, was brought by attorneys with the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, a conservative legal group. It challenges a roughly $4 billion loan-forgiveness provision in the American Rescue Plan, the COVID-19 stimulus package, that applies to farmers and ranchers the USDA defines as "socially disadvantaged" — a category covering Black, American Indian, Alaskan Native, Hispanic, Asian American and Pacific Islander farmers, per CBS News's reporting.

The available reporting does not specify how many farmers joined the suit or the full text of the complaint beyond the passage both outlets quoted. It is also not established in the retrieved coverage whether a judge had ruled on the claims at the time of filing.

What the lawsuit alleges

The complaint argues that because the plaintiffs are ineligible to even apply for the forgiveness program solely due to their race, they have been denied the equal protection of the law. "Because plaintiffs are ineligible to even apply for the program solely due to their race, they have been denied the equal protection of the law," the lawsuit states, according to CBS News's account of the filing.

The suit seeks a court order barring the USDA from using racial classifications to determine eligibility for the loan modifications and payments created under the stimulus law, plus unspecified damages, per the AP's reporting carried by wfmz.com.

The government's position and the program's origins

USDA officials said in a statement reported by the AP that the agency was reviewing the lawsuit but intended to continue offering forgiveness to socially disadvantaged farmers. CBS News's coverage adds that the review involved the Department of Justice as well, and notes Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack — who also served in the role under President Obama — was leading the department at the time.

CBS News's reporting places the program in a longer history of USDA discrimination disputes, noting the department settled discrimination lawsuits brought by Black farmers in 1999 and 2010, and that less than 2% of a separate round of direct loans issued in 2020 went to Black farmers. Neither retrieved source detailed further procedural history of the case beyond the filing itself.

What the case signals

The suit set up an early legal test of whether pandemic-era relief programs that used race-conscious eligibility criteria to address a documented history of discrimination in USDA lending could survive a constitutional challenge — a question that, per the retrieved coverage, was unresolved at the time of filing and not addressed by any court ruling in the sources reviewed for this account.

US In News compiled this archived account from contemporaneous coverage by CBS News and the Associated Press (via wfmz.com). It restores a story originally published on this site in April 2021; figures are as reported at the time.