A federal judge in Florida temporarily suspended the Biden administration’s $4 billion debt-relief program for minority farmers amid a number of discrimination lawsuits around the country on behalf of white farmers.
Judge Marcia Morales Howard, an appointee of the George W. Bush administration, on Wednesday ordered the Agriculture Department to stop issuing payments under the program for “socially disadvantaged” farmers until she can rule on the merits of the case, according to NBC News.
Howard wrote that the program is “significantly likely” to violate the constitutional rights of the case’s plaintiff, a white farmer named Scott Wynn, NBC reported.
Howard, who said that the program likely violates white farmers’ rights to equal protection under the 14th Amendment, is pushing both sides for all pertinent information by June 29 so that she can begin considering the merits of the case.