Kobi Brinson and Chase Cooper Discuss the $5B of Waylaid Debt Relief Promised to Farmers of Color & the USDA’s History of Pervasive Discrimination

Winston & Strawn Partner Kobi Brinson and Associate Chase Cooper were recently quoted in a Counter article titled “After a last-ditch lawsuit is filed in Texas, Black farmers wait to learn the fate of USDA’s imperiled debt relief program.”

The piece delves into the “exhaustively documented” discrimination within the USDA and its branches, the $5 billion debt relief program earmarked to address those historic wrongs, and the white farmers taking legal action to prevent farmers of color from receiving that money. Winston and partner law firms recently filed a motion to intervene in Miller v. Vilsack, the most prominent case opposing the promised relief. Chase estimated that U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor may issue a ruling on the motion as soon as November or early December.

As Kobi states in the article, “What’s missing in the narrative about this is the actual discrimination against Black farmers that led us to this point in the first place…The discrimination against Black farmers is so pervasive, so deep, and has caused such a negative financial impact that it is virtually impossible for the USDA to tell that story itself because it’s a part of that same system.”

Click here to read the full article.