The plaintiff, Adam Faust, is a dairy farmer from Calumet County, near Chilton, Wisconsin. Faust successfully sued the Biden administration in 2021 for preventing him from taking part in a COVID-19 loan forgiveness program due to race.
Now, he’s taken aim at USDA secretary Brooke Rollins in a new complaint filed Monday, June 16.
The Wisconsin farmer alleges that he cannot participate on equal footing with non-white, non-male applicants in at least three USDA farm programs due to ‘racial and sex-based classifications’, largely stemming from the government’s definition of ‘socially disadvantaged farmers’.
Faust is seeking to block the federal agency from applying its allegedly discriminatory policies across the Dairy Margin Coverage program (DMC), Loan Guarantee program, and the Environmental Quality Incentives Program. He is represented by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, a non-profit law firm.
Breaking down the complaint
The lawsuit focuses on three USDA programs – the Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC), the Loan Guarantee program, and the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQUIP) – but also alleges that there are ‘up to two dozen other discriminatory programs are ongoing and identified in the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty’s Roadmap Case to Equality’.
“Unless USDA stops this ongoing race and sex discrimination, or Congress repeals these laws, farmers like Mr. Faust will continue to bear the burden of litigating against the government in federal court,” says the complaint.
On the DMC program, Faust’s gripe is about the $100 administrative fee, which he alleges is waived for ‘minority and female farmers’.
On the Loan Guarantee, which guarantees a certain percentage of the loan against financial loss, the complaint takes aim at alleged discrepancies with the amount that can be claimed by different applicants. “Mr. Faust is eligible for a 90% loan guarantee, while minority and female farmers may receive a 95% loan guarantee,” the complaint alleges.
Finally, the plaintiff says he is eligible to receive up to 75% financial support from the EQUIP program, compared to 90% for minority farmers.
“This Court ruled in favor of Mr. Faust, declaring the program to be unconstitutional race discrimination and entering an injunction,” the complaint reads.
“As in that case, this Court should again declare this type of discrimination unconstitutional and enter an injunction prohibiting Secretary Rollins from implementing these race and sex preferences.
“Farmers, like all other Americans, deserve to be assessed as individuals, not as statistics or as means toward achieving some quota, preference, or balancing based on race or sex.”
‘Socially disadvantaged’: a flawed definition?
At the heart of the complaint is the USDA’s definition of ‘socially disadvantages farmer or rancher’, which discriminates against while men, according to the complaint.
The official definition as listed on the Code of Federal Regulations website defines socially disadvantaged farmer or rancher as:
- a farmer or rancher who is a member of a group whose members have been subject to racial, ethnic, or gender prejudice because of their identity as members of a group without regard to their individual qualities. Groups include: American Indians or Alaskan Natives, Asians or Asian Americans, Blacks or African Americans, Native Hawaiians or other Pacific Islanders, Hispanics, and women. For legal entities requesting to be considered Socially Disadvantaged, the majority interest must be held by socially disadvantaged individuals.
The complaint thus alleges that the federal agency’s definition covers farmers ‘who are American Indians or Alaskan Natives, Asians or Asian Americans, Blacks or African Americans, Native Hawaiians or other Pacific Islanders, Hispanics, and women’.
Rollins ‘failed to end this discrimination’
The complaint goes on to allege that the USDA secretary Brooke Rollins – who is the defendant in the case – has ‘failed’ to enact executive orders designed to end ‘all discriminatory and illegal preferences, mandates, policies, programs’.
In April, Faust wrote to Rollins to warn her of the issue and threaten litigation; this was followed up by a letter signed by six congressmen – Tony Wied, Bryan Steil, Derrick Van Orden, Glenn Grothman, Thomas P. Tiffany, and Scott Fitzgerald – and sent to the ag secretary in May.
“We are asking you to investigate this important issue and to remove all race and sex-based preferences impacting Mr. Faust,” said the signatories. “Furthermore, we call for a thorough review and prompt reform of all other potentially discriminatory programs administered by USDA under the designation of supporting ‘socially disadvantaged farmers’.”
But Rollins responded to neither calls to action, according to the complaint, resulting in the filing of the lawsuit.
“Unless USDA stops this ongoing race and sex discrimination, or Congress repeals these laws, farmers like Mr. Faust will continue to bear the burden of litigating against the government in federal court,” the complaint concludes.
The case has been filed with the Wisconsin Eastern District Court and the presiding judge is Byron B Conway.