Denver, Colorado – July 8, 2021 – Mountain States Legal Foundation General Counsel William E. Trachman today cheered a federal judge’s order halting the Department of Agriculture from proceeding with a post-pandemic farm loan relief program that expressly excludes white farmers and ranchers. MSLF and the Southeastern Legal Foundation challenged the constitutionality of race-based loan relief on equal protection grounds, on behalf of Tennessee farmer Rob Holman and Wyoming rancher Leisl Carpenter. One of those suits, Holman v. Vilsack, bore fruit today when U.S. District Judge S. Thomas Anderson, of the Western District of Tennessee, granted our request for a nationwide halt to the program pending further judicial review.
Mr. Trachman congratulated SLF on a successful team effort and issued the following statement in response to today’s win:
“What’s it going to take for the Biden-Harris Administration to comply with the Constitution? Now that their discriminatory farming and ranch debt relief has been enjoined by another court as a violation of the equal protection clause, the writing is on the wall. It’s time to treat all of us like Americans, regardless of our skin color. The pandemic didn’t discriminate when it hurt farmers and ranchers last year, and the government shouldn’t discriminate now. Racial segregation was wrong before, it’s wrong now, and will be wrong forever.”
Judge Anderson’s order can be read here.
MSLF’s press release and initial case filing can be found here.