Civil rights attorney Ben Crump and four minority farmers say Congress broke a contract when lawmakers repealed $4 billion in debt relief for minority producers and adopted new language that expanded eligibility to a broader group of economically distressed growers.
Lawmakers made the change in an August reconciliation law to move past three nationwide court injunctions that had kept the money in limbo.
Crump, nationally known for his work in responding to the police killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ky., filed a lawsuit against the federal government in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. The lawsuit, dated Oct. 7, says the four plaintiffs “risk losing their farms and their livelihoods as a result of the U.S. Government’s wrongful conduct.”
