A group of white Illinois farmers is challenging an agricultural relief bill designed to provide loan assistance to “socially disadvantaged” farmers and ranchers, arguing that they are ineligible for assistance following COVID-19 due to their race.
Ryan Kent, Matthew Morton and Joshua Morton filed the complaint on June 7 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois against Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack and Administrator of the Farm Service Agency Zach Ducheneaux. The plaintiffs filed the complaint for injunctive and declaratory relief.
They filed their complaint through attorney Glenn Roper of Pacific Legal Foundation in Highlands Ranch, Col.
Roper wrote that the plaintiffs seek to “challenge a law that distributes benefits and burdens on the basis of race in violation of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.”
The lawsuit addresses the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, which was signed into law on March 11 and allows the federal government to distribute $1.9 trillion in federal funds. The suit states that Section 1005 of the law directs the Secretary of Agriculture to “provide a payment in an amount up to 120 percent of the outstanding indebtedness of each socially disadvantaged farmer or rancher as of January 1, 2021.” However, the plaintiffs allege the law establishes social disadvantage based on race.
“Farmers and ranchers who are Black, American Indian/Alaskan Native, Hispanic, Asian, and Hawaiian/Pacific Islander are eligible for loan assistance, regardless of whether they have suffered any racial discrimination in obtaining farm loans, farming or elsewhere and regardless of their present economic circumstances,” Roper wrote. “Farmers and ranchers who are white are ineligible for loan assistance, regardless of their individual circumstances.”
According to the complaint, Kent is a farmer in Centralia. He works at a farm that he expanded after it was started by his father. He grows soybeans, wheat, and corn.
Matthew and Joshua Morton are farmers in Kell. They grow corn, soybeans and wheat.
The plaintiffs claim they hold qualifying farm loans under the American Rescue Plan Act and would be eligible for assistance if they weren't white.
They argue that Section 1005 is similar to the Emergency Relief for Farmers of Color Act of 2021, which was intended to “address the historical discrimination against socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers and address issues relating to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).”
In regards to the American Rescue Plan Act, Roper wrote that Vilsack issued a statement on March 10 saying the law “provides historic debt relief to Black, Indigenous, Hispanic, and other farmers of color who for generations have struggled to fully succeed due to systemic discrimination and a cycle of debt.”
Then on March 25, Vilsack said the law “provides funding to address longstanding racial equity issues within the Department and across agriculture.”
The next day, Ducheneaux stated in a blog post that “USDA recognizes that socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers have faced systemic discrimination with cumulative effects that have, among other consequences, led to a substantial loss in the number of socially disadvantaged producers, reduced the amount of farmland they control, and contributed to a cycle of debt that was exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
However, the plaintiffs claim there has been “extensive” response in the past by the federal government to address alleged loan discrimination. The 1990 Farm Bill established the Outreach and Assistance for Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers and Veteran Farmers and Ranchers Program, which has been awarded 533 grants totaling more than $138 million. Then the 2018 Farm Bill increased funding for the program.
Additionally, Roper wrote that the USDA paid roughly $1 billion to a class of approximately 23,000 black farmers in 2011 to settle lawsuits alleging discrimination in lending to minority farmers and ranchers. A subsequent class action settlement was reached for farmers who were unable to file a claim in the first class action.
A similar class action was brought for Native American farmers and ranchers.
Then the Department of Justice and USDA established a process to address discrimination claims by women and Hispanic farmers and ranchers.
The plaintiffs allege the 242-page bill violates the equal protection component of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. They argue that the relief bill is not intended to remedy specific instances of racial discrimination and assumes that all individuals of socially disadvantaged racial groups have suffered racial discrimiantion. Additionally, socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers qualify for loan assistance even if any past discrimiantion has already been remedied, the suit states.
“Section 1005 does not limit farm loan assistance to only socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers that have suffered racial discrimination, let alone racial discrimiation in farming, or racial discrimination in obtaining farm loans,” Roper wrote.
The plaintiffs add that as long as Section 1005 maintains that only socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers may receive loan assistance, white farmers and ranchers will be ineligible for any assistance.
They seek a judgment declaring that the “socially disadvantaged” provisions of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 violate the Fifth Amendment and are not in accordance with the law.
They also seek preliminary and permanent injunctions prohibiting the defendants from enforcing the socially disadvantaged provisions “and opening eligibility for loan assistance to all farmers or ranchers with qualifying farm loans.”
In the alternative, they seek injunctions prohibiting the defendants from enforcing the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 in its entirety.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois case number 3:21-cv-540