A district court judge granted an injunction against President Joe Biden’s loan-forgiveness program for non-white people, ruling in favor of a Tennessee farmer who filed a lawsuit and argued the provision is unconstitutional.
U.S. District Judge S. Thomas Anderson ruled last week that the USDA should halt its distribution of funds through the program until the case is fully resolved. The program, otherwise known as Section 1005, was created under a provision in the Biden-sponsored American Rescue Plan Act that was passed by Congress earlier this year.
“However important the goal of eliminating the vestiges of prior race discrimination, and it is important, the government’s efforts cannot withstand strict scrutiny. Therefore, Plaintiff has shown a likeliness of success on the merits at trial,” he wrote (pdf) in favor of farmer Robert Holman, who was being represented by Southeastern Legal Foundation and the Mountain States Legal Foundation.
While there isn’t a cap on the amount of loans that can be granted by the USDA, some $3.8 billion had been provided to the program and those funds may be gone before the case is resolved, the judge ruled in explaining why he created an injunction against the program.
Elaborating further, Anderson ruled Holman “has shown a substantial likelihood that he will prevail on his claim” that the provision violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection clause. “Absent action by the Court, socially disadvantaged farmers will obtain debt relief,” he wrote, “while Plaintiff will suffer the irreparable harm of being excluded from that program solely on the basis of his race.”
The farm loan program was part of Biden’s plan to promote “equity” and would pay off “the loans of black, Hispanic, American Indian, Native Alaskan and Hawaiian farmers” and award them “an additional 20 percent of the value as a cash payment,” the Southeastern Legal Foundation noted.
Section 1005 pays up to 120 percent of a direct or guaranteed farm loan for black American Indian, Hispanic, Asian American, or Pacific Islander farmers, according to the USDA’s website.
