White Illinois farmers are challenging part of the recent COVID-19 stimulus law in court because it allocates federal benefits based on skin color.
The civil rights suit, Kent v. Vilsack, was filed in federal court June 7 by Sacramento, California-based Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), a national public-interest law firm. Tom Vilsack is being sued in his official capacity as U.S. secretary of agriculture. The firm has filed two other such lawsuits against Vilsack and expects to file more.
One of the plaintiffs, Ryan Kent of Centralia, Illinois, is a white man who grows soybeans, wheat, and corn on a 5,000-acre farm started by his father. The other plaintiffs are brothers—Matthew and Joshua Morton—of Kell, Illinois, who are also white. They also grow soybeans, wheat, and corn on their farm. Like many farmers, all three have been hurt by the pandemic and have a federal farm loan with an outstanding balance.
In Kent’s situation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) approved his $90,000 loan in 2010 so he could buy an additional 77 acres for his farming operations. Today, he still owes $43,000—a debt that siphons away a significant portion of his monthly income and, in an industry with low profit margins in normal times, has led to economic hardship for his family during the ongoing pandemic.
But then Congress passed the American Rescue Plan Act, which was signed into law on March 11.
The statute authorizes the federal government to distribute $1.9 trillion in federal funds. Section 1005 of the act directs the secretary to pay up to 120 percent of the outstanding indebtedness of each socially disadvantaged farmer or rancher as of Jan. 1 of this year. Plaintiffs say the program violates the Fifth Amendment’s due process clause, which requires the U.S. government to practice equal protection.
Section 1005 “assumes farmers and ranchers are socially disadvantaged for no other reason than their membership in a racial group,” and “categorically excludes other farmers and ranchers from loan assistance because they do not belong in a ‘socially disadvantaged racial group,’” according to the legal complaint.
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