Salon.com reports that “A conservative legal group founded by former Trump officials Stephen Miller and Mark Meadows has filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration for its support of the American Rescue Plan, which the suit alleges discriminates against farmers of “white ethnic groups” by reserving funds for “socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers.”
The legal group, America First Legal, which vows to take on “the radical activist left,” is representing Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller. The suit, which the plaintiffs brought to the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Texas, argues that “white farmers and ranchers are not included within the definition of ‘socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers,’ making them ineligible for aid under these federal programs.”
“These racial exclusions are patently unconstitutional,” it continues. The group argues that, if the court does not recognize this, “then it should at the very least declare that the phrase ‘socially disadvantaged group’ must be construed, as a matter of statutory interpretation, to include ethnic groups of all types that have been subjected to racial and ethnic prejudice, including (but not limited to) Irish, Italians, Germans, Jews, and eastern Europeans.”
To further his case, Miller in a press statement invoked the words of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. “Americans,” Miller quoted, “‘should not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.'”
“MLK’s vision is fundamental to our democracy, in which all citizens are equal both in front of the law and in the eyes of their Creator,” Miller claimed. “For this reason, AFL is filing a lawsuit today against the Biden Administration to prevent it from administering programs created under the American Rescue Plan Act that discriminate against American farmers and ranchers based upon the basis of race.”
It is widely expected that Miller will get his ass handed to him in court, given that he is clearly misrepresenting prior statements by Civil Rights leaders, and a return to the status quo would mean a return to decades of neglect of black farmers by Federal Programs.